2026 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's slalom

Due to injuries to their most prominent challengers, last season came down to a battle between Zrinka Ljutić of Croatia, now 21, and 2021 discipline champion Katharina Liensberger of Austria, now 28, which went to Ljutić. However, two 30-year-olds--two-time discipline champion Petra Vlhová of Slovakia (who missed all of last season with an injury suffered in January 2024 and will not return until midway through the season) and eight-time discipline champion Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States (who missed much of last season with a serious puncture wound, but still won four races in her limited appearances, giving her an all-time record of 101 World Cup wins)--are expected to return at full strength, which definitely creates uncertainty about the season's outcome.

And, indeed, in the season opener at Levi, Finland, Shiffrin showed a complete return to her previous form, posting the fastest time in both runs, blowing out the field by over a second and a half (with Lara Colturi of Albania, who was celebrating her 19th birthday, second), and winning her ninth reindeer for victory at Levi.^[5] The next weekend in Gurgl, Austria, Shiffrin again dominated, defeating second-place Colturi by 1.23 seconds.^[6] A week later, after the World Cup events had moved to North America for two weeks -- first at Copper Mountain, about a 30-minute drive from Shiffrin's hometown of Edwards, Colorado, Shiffrin continued her dominance, winning her third straight slalom, once again by over a second and a half (over Lena Dürr of Germany), with Colturi almost two seconds back in third.^[7]

After the World Cup season returned to Europe, Shiffrin's slalom domination remained unchanged, as she won the next race, a night slalom in Courcheval, France, by over 1.5 seconds once more, boosting her lead in the discipline standings to 180 points after just four races in the discipline.^[8] Two weeks later, the last slalom during 2025 was also a night slalom, and the first run took place on a mild afternoon that destroyed the course, with only 40 of the 77 starters even being able to finish due to all the damage . . . and times almost six seconds behind first-run leader Camille Rast of Switzerland, who had finished second in the previous day's giant slalom by .14 seconds and now held over a half-second lead on Shiffrin in fourth, still qualified for the second run.^[9] Although conditions for the second run (three and a half hours later) were better, 6 of the 30 racers nevertheless failed to finish, and 2 others were so far behind (over 8.5 seconds) that they did not earn any points; Rast, however, posted the second-best time for the second run . . . but failed to win, by .09 seconds this time, because Shiffrin closed with a great finishing run that beat Rast by .63 seconds, thus keeping Shiffrin undefeated for the season.^[9] The next week, the first weekend of 2026. the same two skiers dominated at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, but this time Rast narrowly bettered Shiffrin in each run to win by 0.14 seconds and break Shiffrin's season-long slalom winning streak, while the next-best skier (Rast's teammate Wendy Holdener) finished over a second and a half (actually 1.83 seconds) behind.^[10]

A little over a week later, at a night slalom in Flachau, Austria, the top two after both runs were American, with Shiffrin winning and Paula Moltzan second -- maintaining a statistic that no American woman other than Shiffrin has won a World Cup slalom since Lindsey Vonn in 2009, and leaving Shiffrin with a 268-point lead in the discipline over Rast (who finished fourth), with only 300 possible points remaining for the season.^[11] That weekend, Vhlová announced that, after two years of recovery, she had finally been cleared to return to competitive skiing, and she hoped to compete enough to be ready to defend her 2022 slalom title in the Olympics.^[12] However, Vhlová chose not to return at Špindlerův Mlýn, Czechia, the last slalom before the Olympics, and Shiffrin repeated her early-season dominance, posting the fastest time on both runs, beating runner-up Rast by 1.67 seconds and the rest of the field by over two seconds, and (with a 288-point lead with only two races remaining) clinching the season crystal globe in the discipline (her record ninth in slalom, for the moment one better than Lindsey Vonn's eight in downhill).^[13]

At the Winter Olympics in Cortina, all eyes were focused on the weather, which had turned the flat technical course from powder (as in the previous runs on it) to ice, and on the unusual course setup by the Austrian coach for the first run -- but the setup did not hamper Shiffrin, as she posted a lead of 0.82 seconds over Dürr, the only racer within one second, and then posted the second-fastest time on the second run (behind only her teammate Moltzan (who placed eighth)) to win by 1.5 seconds, reclaiming the slalom gold medal that she previously won in 2014 -- and finally ending her almost-two-Olympics-long streak of not medaling.^[14] Two first-time medalists completed the podium: Rast claimed the silver medal for the first Alpine skiing medal won by the Swiss women (after eight won by the men), and Anna Swenn-Larsson of Sweden claimed the bronze; defending gold medalist Vlhová returned to competition but placed 20th.^[15] Back on the World Cup circuit at Åre (Sweden), Vhlova did not return after the Olympics, and Shiffrin tied the all-time record, previously held by Janica Kostelic (2001) and herself (2019), with her eighth slalom victory of the season by almost a full second over Emma Aicher of Germany (the best slalom result of her young career), while Rast's tenth-place finish clinched second place in the discipline for the season; Aicher, who competes in every discipline (as Shiffrin did before her injuries), remained in second place in the overall standings, 140 points behind Shiffrin, with just the finals remaining.^[16]

The World Cup finals in the discipline are scheduled to take place on Tuesday, 24 March 2026 on the Olympialøypa course at Hafjell, near Lillehammer, Norway.^[17] Only the top 25 skiers in the World Cup slalom discipline and the winner of the 2026 FIS Junior World Championships in the discipline (Anna Trocker of Italy), plus any skiers who have scored at least 500 points in the World Cup overall classification for the season, will be eligible to compete in the final, and only the top 15 will earn World Cup points. Two of the qualified skiers (Katharina Liensberger of Austria and Martina Peterlini of Italy) did not compete due to injury, and no 500-plus point skiers registered, so the field consisted of Trocker and the remaining 23 qualifiers, or 24, with the battle for the season overall title between Shiffrin (who held a 45-point lead) and Aicher on the line in this race and tomorrow's giant slalom, although both disciplines had already been decided. In the race, Shiffrin took over a second lead over the field on the first run and maintained it on the second; her victory (her 110th overall on the World Cup circuit) made her the first woman to achieve nine victories in one discipline in a season.^[18] Wendy Holdener finished second to clinch third place in the discipline for the season, and Aicher's third place left her 85 points behind Shiffrin, thus allowing Aicher to retain a theoretical chance of winning the overall title were she to win the last race of finals (tomorrow's giant slalom) and Shiffrin place worse than 15th.^[18]

• 2026 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's summary rankings
• 2026 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's overall
• 2026 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's downhill
• 2026 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's super-G
• 2026 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's giant slalom
• World Cup scoring system