Will Hirscher Be the Star of the FIS Ski World Cup Season?
The 2024/25 Audi FIS Ski World Cup season will begin on October 26th with a Men’s and Women’s Giant Slalom raced down Solden’s Rettenbach slope. With a vertical drop of 1,214 feet and a maximum gradient of 34.3 degrees, the curtain-raising Austrian races should set the pulse racing for the five-month season ahead.
In 2019, Marcel Hirscher won the overall FIS Alpine Ski World Cup title for an eighth time and promptly retired. He will make a return to action this season. ©Getty
2025 is a FIS Alpine Ski World Championship year, and further adding to the excitement, two high-profile skiers will return from retirement and be in action during the coming season. They are eight-time World Cup overall champion Marcel Hirscher and 2022/23 World Cup slalom champion Lucas Braathen. Braathen formerly represented Norway but will return wearing Brazil’s colours after a year away from the sport.
Hirscher Returns Under a New Flag
35-year-old Marcel Hirscher was last seen in action in 2019 when he won nine races. Two Olympic golds, seven World Championship golds (over four separate championships), and 67 World Cup race wins mean many rate Hirscher as the best alpine ski racer of all time. He, too, will return representing a new country. With dual Netherlands/Austrian nationality, Hirscher will now don Dutch colours.
Announcing his return and his move away from the country he has always represented, the living legend explained he did not want to take a spot on the Austrian team away from a young athlete. “After racing 99 per cent of my races for my homeland, it’s nice to do one per cent for my motherland,” Hirscher said before heading to New Zealand for training.
The Fascinating Men’s Slalom World Cup
The pair’s return has thrown the betting on the Slalom World Cup wide open. Defending champion Manuel Feller remains the favourite with online betting sites ahead of the 2023/24 season runner-up, Loic Meillard. However, the betting is tight and much depends on the performance of both Braathen and Hirscher.
| Manuel Feller | 7/2 |
| Loic Meillard | 9/2 |
| Linus Strasser | 6/1 |
| Clement Noel | 7/1 |
| Lucas Braathen | 7/1 |
| Marco Schwarz | 9/1 |
| Henrik Kristoffersen | 10/1 |
| Timon Haugan | 10/1 |
| Marcel Hirscher | 10/1 |
Marco Odermatt’s name is missing from this list, as the Swiss athlete does not contest Slalom races. However, the 26-year-old has taken the Giant Slalom title for the past three seasons and is the favourite to win that title in 2024/25. Quoted on 1/6 odds, his price is prohibitive.
Odermatt is an even shorter 1/7 proposition in the Overall World Cup market. He also took this accolade for three consecutive years and was second in 2021. Since the start of that season, this ‘best of a generation’ skier has won Giant Slalom Olympic gold and 36 World Cup races: 23 Giant Slaloms, 11 Super-G’s and two Downhills.
Will the Big Three Women Stay Injury-Free?
The women’s FIS Ski World Cup season appears less competitive but could be equally exciting. Mikaela Shiffrin – boasting the most World Cup wins of any alpine skier in history (men or women) – returns in the hope of winning the Slalom World Cup for the ninth time and the Overall World Cup for a sixth time. She is the odds-on favourite for both crystal globes.
Last season, Lara Gut-Behrami, who won her first World Cup race in 2009, enjoyed her best-ever season with eight victories in Downhill, Super-G and Giant Slalom. This all-rounder’s profile enabled her to take the Overall title for a second time – 2015/16 was her first championship-winning season.
Now 33, age will eventually catch up with Gut-Behrami. However, she has remained injury-free for much of her career, and online sportsbooks may have underestimated her chances of retaining the title in 2024/25. She is available on 5/1 odds at the Unibet betting site.
Injury blighted Shiffrin last season, costing her six weeks of racing, and another big player in women’s skiing, Petra Vlhova, has only just returned to on-snow training seven months after a horrific knee injury. There is no way of knowing what form the 22-year-old Olympic gold medallist from Slovakia will be in when the new season begins.
How Does the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Scoring Work?
In FIS Ski World Cup races, the top 30 finishers are awarded points. The winner receives 100 points. There are 80 for second, 60 for third, and points are staggered down to 1 point for 30th place. The skier with the most points at the end of the season will receive a nine-kilogram crystal globe for taking the ‘Overall’ category. Prizes are also awarded to winners of each discipline. Downhill, Super-G, Giant Slalom, and Slalom winners receive a smaller crystal globe.
Thirty-one resorts – stretching from Sun Valley in Idaho, USA, to Levi, Finland – are scheduled to host FIS Ski World Cup events during the winter months. There are 38 planned races on the Men’s 2024/25 World Cup calendar and 37 on the Women’s. Furthermore, in February, 11 World Championship competitions will take place in Saalbach Hinterglemm, Austria.
The UK’s best online betting sites will offer odds on all races during the 2024/25 season. Furthermore, markets on outright season titles will be updated after every round. Armchair fans can watch the action live on Eurosport, which will also broadcast key training sessions.
