Featured Image: Cortina Credit: GEPA
Anticipation builds as FIS reveals the draft schedule for the upcoming World Cup season. The initial version was made public today, May 9th. This draft highlights several thrilling elements that promise to engage fans and participants alike.
Including the World Cup Finals but excluding the Olympics, the women will have 17 speed events, eight super-G, and nine downhill races. They will also compete in 21 tech events, 10 slalom, and 11 giant slalom.
The men will also have 17 speed events, 10 super-G, and seven downhill races. Additionally, they will compete in 19 tech events, 11 slaloms, and eight giant slaloms.
Changes in Colorado, USA
Killington, Vermont, has held the women’s World Cup giant slalom and slalom races over Thanksgiving weekend for the past eight years. However, those races will shift to Copper Mountain, Colorado, with a men’s World Cup super G and giant slalom this season. The events will take place Nov. 27th-30th.
The men will remain in Colorado and compete in the downhill, super-G, and giant slalom disciplines at the Birds of Prey in Beaver Creek, Colorado, during the first weekend of December. However, they have removed the Beaver Creek speed event from the women’s calendar this season.
Last season marked a significant milestone for the Stifel Birds of Prey as they welcomed women to compete on the same Birds of Prey track as the men for the first time. Austrian skier Cornelia Hütter claimed victory in the downhill event, while Italy’s Sofia Goggia triumphed in the super-G.
This event was seen as a remarkable opportunity for women’s speed racing and the Stifel US Ski Team’s women’s speed program, providing them with a chance to showcase their skills on home snow.
TBD for Men’s Super-G on December 28th
Last season, the men’s downhill and super-G events occurred in Bormio on December 28th and 29th, 2024. However, for the upcoming 2026 season, Bormio will be hosting the men’s races as part of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, which means that a new venue is yet to be determined for this date.
Teams have raised concerns over Draft 3 of the 2025-26 calendar, which includes only four men’s downhills before the Bormio Olympics. Organizers held the downhill and super-G in Bormio in late December 2024. Still, dangerous conditions raised safety concerns and deterred them from scheduling another World Cup in Bormio before the Olympics.
In contrast, the February slot offers more daylight, similar to what teams experienced during the 2005 World Championships. It also provides better opportunities to build the course and ensure consistent snow from top to bottom.
Crans-Montana, Switzerland, will host back-to-back World Cup speed races—one for the women and one for the men—from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, just weeks before the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games. The event will be a key test of the resort’s ability to stage consecutive speed events for different genders on the same hill ahead of the 2027 World Championships.
The 2026 Winter Olympic Games
The men compete in Bormio at the Stelvio Ski Centre, and the women compete in Cortina at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre.
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World Cup Final Held in Lillehammer, Norway
The 2026 World Cup Finals will occur in Lillehammer, Norway, from March 21st to 25th.
The races will be held at two nearby mountains: Kvitfjell, which will feature the speed events, and Hafjell, which will be designated for the technical events.
This past season, there were five different racers who succeeded in victories in Kvitfjell:
Women:
- Cornelia Hütter (downhill)
- Emma Aicher (downhill)
- Federica Brignone (super-G)
Men:
- Dominik Paris (downhill)
- Franjo Von Allem (downhill)
- Dominik Paris (super-G)
Hafjell only hosted the men in the 2025 season for a giant slalom and slalom race, which Loïc Meillard of Switzerland dominated back-to-back.
The last time that the women raced in Hafjell was March 2006, and Spain’s Raquel Rieda Contreras won the GS.
The 25/26 provisional schedules (click to enlarge and download):
About the Author: Ellie Hartman
