American alpine skiing superstar Mikaela Shiffrin will be chasing her fifth crystal globe in the new World Cup season, which begins October 22-23 at her traditional first stop, the Austrian winter center of Soelden.
Mikaela Shiffrin will try to climb to second place in the all-time ranking of “championship titles”, whose leader is the Austrian legend Annemarie Moser-Proell with six crystal globes.
This season, the American will be one of four active skiers who have won the big crystal – the others are Lara Gut-Behrami (2016, Switzerland), Federica Brignone (2020, Italy) and Petra Vlhova (2021, Slovakia).
The last campaign was contested until the last moment because of the incredible efforts of the Beijing 2022 Olympic champion in the slalom, but Mikaela Shiffrin still prevailed. This season, potential contenders include Switzerland’s Michelle Gisin, Italy’s speed queen Sofia Goggia and leading Nordic skier – Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel.
Corinne Suter and Ester Ledecka are expected to fight for the small crystal globe in downhill, and Elena Curtoni will have her chances in the battle in the Super-G. Lena Duerr and Katharina Liensberger will certainly compete in the slalom, and Tessa Worley and Sara Hector will attack the giant slalom.
In particular, at the start of the season in Soelden with the giant slalom on October 22, it is normal that the eyes are mainly focused on the holder of the small crystal from the last campaign – Tessa Worley. She will try to become the first since Anna Fenninger (now Anna Veith) in 2015 to successfully defend the crown in the discipline.
Mikaela Shiffrin, however, has finished in the top 3 in the final standings in the giant slalom in the last six campaigns (once champion), taking her second career victory in Soelden last year. If she wins for the third time, she will equal the record holder Tina Maze, who will be a commentator on the races this season.
Sara Hector, who with three victories in the discipline led everyone in this indicator last campaign, will be ambitious to attack the small crystal globe, having lost it in dramatic fashion in the Finals in Courchevel/Meribel on March 20th.
A curious fact specifically about Soelden is that only twice in the last seven seasons has the winner of this giant slalom won the small crystal globe – Viktoria Rebensburg in 2017/18 and Marta Bassino in 2020/21.
