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World Championships are held every other year and were rescheduled in 1984 to be held in odd years so as not to clash with Olympic Games. Before that, the Olympics were in lieu of a separate World Championship during the Olympic years. On Monday, February 6, 2023, the FIS Alpine Ski World Championships will kick off at the French resorts of Courchevel and Méribél.
The FIS Alpine Ski World Championships consist of six disciplines: Combined, Parallel, Downhill, Super-G, Giant Slalom, and Slalom. The Parallel is held as three events: a men’s and women’s parallel and a mixed team parallel. There will be 13 races total from February 6-19, 2023, and the championships kicked off with a grand opening ceremony on Sunday, February 5, 2023, in Courchevel Le Praz, the village at the foot of the mountain.
What to watch:
Monday, February 6, 2023:
Women’s Alpine Combined
Tuesday, February 7, 2023:
Men’s Alpine Combined
Wednesday, February 8, 2023:
Women’s Super-G
Thursday, February 9, 2023:
Men’s Super-G
Saturday, February 11, 2023:
Women’s Downhill
Sunday, February 12, 2023:
Men’s Downhill
Tuesday, February 14, 2023:
Team Parallel
Wednesday, February 15, 2023:
Individual Parallel (Men’s & Women’s)
Thursday, February 16, 2023:
Women’s Giant Slalom
Friday, February 17, 2023:
Men’s Giant Slalom
Saturday, February 18, 2023:
Women’s Slalom
Sunday, February 19, 2023:
Men’s Slalom
Who to watch from Team USA:
Representing Team USA at the 2023 World Championships will be
- Katie Hensien
- Breezy Johnson
- Tricia Mangan
- Paula Moltzan
- Nina O’Brien
- Mikaela Shiffrin
- Ava Sunshine
- Bella Wright
- Erik Arvidsson
- Bryce Bennett
- Ryan Cochran-Siegl
- Tommy Ford
- Travis Ganong
- Jared Goldberg
- Sam Morse
- Brian McLaughlin
- Kyle Negomir
- River Radamus
- Ben Ritchie
- Jett Seymour
- Luke Winters
Who are the top contenders:
Downhill:
Italy’s Sofia Goggia missed the 2021 World Championships in Cortina due to an injury and will surely be a force to be reckoned with. In her home country, the Italian is known as “The Queen of Speed,” Goggia is the top contender for Champion, leading the 22/23 rankings by more than 108 FIS points. Goggia has won four of the six Downhill races this season and shown what she is made of after winning the St. Moritz Downhill after breaking her hand (and still coming second) the previous day.
The Men’s Downhill World Cup has been dominated by Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who won five of the eight Downhill races so far and shows no sign of slowing down. The Norwegian was also injured two years ago, so he will surely be keen to show what he is made of.
Super-G:
The top contenders for Super-G are Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel, the current leader in the 22/23 Cup standings, and 2022 Olympic Gold medal winner Lara Gut-Behrami from Switzerland, who won the 2021’s World Championship in Super-G.
On the men’s side, the hottest contender is, hands down, Marco Odermatt from Switzerland. Due to his young age, Odermatt has smashed years of Junior World Championships and has an impressive six Gold medals and one Bronze to his name, but he has not yet podiumed in the World Championships. He leads this season’s Super-G standings by 148 points in front of Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.
Giant Slalom:
Mikaela Shiffrin has competed at the World Championships since 2013 and podiumed eleven times, three of which were for Giant Slalom. This season she is the World Cup leader by 118 points in front of Lara Gut-Behrami, and expectations for the American to win her first Giant Slalom World Championship are high.
The men’s point leader in the World Cup Giant Slalom rankings is Marco Odermatt, who also won Gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. He is hands down the favorite in this discipline.
Slalom:
Mikaela Shiffrin has won four Slalom World Championships and placed third two years ago. She currently leads the standings by an incredible 255 points and is hands down the hottest contender for the 2023 title. Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener and Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova are tied for second and are solid contenders for the podium.
The favorite for men’s Slalom is Lucas Braathen, who leads the World Cup table by 36 points. However, the young Norwegian just underwent appendix surgery, and his ability to start is still in question. Second-placed is Switzerland’s Daniel Yule, and third is Henrik Kristoffersen from Norway, who are only separated by five points.
Combined:
The Combined held at the World Championships is also known as a Super Combined or Alpine Combined and consists of a Super-G and a Slalom race held on the same day, with the combined time of the two races determining the winner. It is an interesting combination of speed with technical finesse. It is an ongoing debate about who fares better in the combined: the speed specialists or the tech specialists.
Mikaela Shiffrin will probably be the strongest contender, having won the 2021 combined and proven she does well in speed events and not just tech events. Petra Vlhova has announced she will not race the Combined. Switzerland’s Michelle Gisin won Bronze in 2021 and is the reigning Olympic Champion, so she will also be a favorite in this discipline, as are her teammate Wendy Holdener and Italy’s Federica Brignone, who won silver and Bronze in Beijing.
Combined specialists for the men are Austria’s Marco Schwarz, France’s Alexis Pinturault, and Switzerland’s Loic Meillard, but we can provide more insight once the start list is released.
Parallel:
The Parallel is also a Slalom event that is run — as the name implies — parallel. It is not yet confirmed who will start for the parallel events, but hot contenders will be the Slalom experts. We will keep you updated on starting lists as information becomes available.
Ski fans in the US can watch all the action live on NBC-Peacock.
How do you watch it? Please enlighten me.