Status of the Women Pursuing the Crystal Globes

As the calendar flips to the new year, it’s an excellent time to take stock of the Women’s World Cup standings. Despite many early-season cancellations, 15 of 42 scheduled 2022-23 races occurred before the New Year. The races have given us the first glimpse into the status of the athletes (including those whose last name isn’t Shiffrin)  who find themselves on the podium and/or have achieved longitudinal success through point accumulation and consistent, strong performances.  

Let’s look at the point leaders for each discipline and the much-coveted pursuit of the Overall Crystal Globe:

Overall Standings 

By any measure, Mikaela Shiffrin is the most natural, skilled, multi-disciplinary, and dominant alpine skier of her time. Shiffrin has won the Overall Crystal Globe in four of the last six years and is stacking up a series of victories and point leads which has her on a fast track to a 5th Overall Crystal Globe.

The 27-year-old Colorado native has been virtually unstoppable. Shiffrin has already celebrated six victories with impressive back-to-back slalom wins in Levi, a super-G win in St. Moritz, and an astonishing string of three consecutive wins in Semmering (two GS and one slalom). These wins represent lifetime career victories 75 through 80 for Shiffrin. At this pace, she will not only shatter Lindsey Vonn’s women’s record of 82 victories but is within reach of tying or surpassing the 86 all-time victory mark set decades ago by Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark. 

Now for the athletes whose last name isn’t Shiffrin 

The typical Shiffrin rival has been Slovakia’s Petra Vlhová, who is ranked second in this season overall. However, the 2021 Overall Crystal Globe winner is still looking for her first victory this season but has accumulated a substantial point total through a string of third and fourth-place finishes in the tech disciplines. In contrast, the speed disciplines have hampered her. She experienced a disappointing performance in St. Moritz, where she did not finish in both downhills and the super-G. Vlhová has struggled this season, and without a victory, it’s hard to see her making gains in the overall standings, especially considering Shiffrin’s performance. That said, she is a proven veteran that may yet find her groove as she has done in years past.

Goggia

Italy’s Sofia Goggia is a force of nature, full stop. The 30-year-old veteran seems to take every race beyond the limit, and she is being rewarded.  Goggia has earned the third spot in the overall ranking by dominating the downhills. The Italian has won three of the four contests this season, highlighted by a pair of commanding victories in Lake Louise and claiming one of the two contests in St. Moritz. On the first day in St. Moritz, Goggia suffered a broken left hand after hitting the third gate. She still managed to find a second-place finish behind teammate and winner Elena Curtoni. Following a roundtrip flight to Milan, undergoing surgery, and strapping her glove to her pole with duct tape, Goggia naturally outpaced the rest of the field in the second St. Moritz downhill, sprinting to a first-place finish in true Goggia style. 

Holdener

So far, the feel-good story of the season goes to Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener. The tech specialist claimed her first-ever win in slalom. In Killington, Holdener picked up her long-awaited (shared) slalom win with Sweden’s Anna Swenn-Larsson. However, she then followed up two weekends later when she uncorked the champagne for herself, marking her first solo victory. Contextually, the 29-year-old has been active in the World Cup since 2011; in that time, she has racked up thirty World Cup podium appearances and four Olympic podiums, never making it to the top of the podium until this season. Undoubtedly, it was a dream come true for the Swiss veteran. 

Gut-Behrami

Lara Gut-Behrami rounds out the top five in the overall standings by collecting six top-ten finishes, including a giant slalom win in Killington and a second-place finish in the Semmering giant slalom. Widely recognized for her prowess in the speed disciplines, the super-G gold medalist from Beijing, a 31-year-old veteran, has only cracked a top ten twice, an eighth-place finish in the St. Moritz super-G and another in a St. Moritz downhill. As good as she is, we can expect to see more from Gut-Behrami during the remainder of the season.

Here’s a rundown of the individual discipline rankings for this season’s Crystal Globes:

Downhill Standings

Sofia Goggia dominates the downhill event, slashing and grinding her way to three victories and landing a second-place finish during a courageous day one downhill in St. Moritz. In second place is Switzerland’s Corinne Suter, who has graced the podium three times with a second and third-place finish in Lake Louise and a third-place finish in St. Moritz.  

It’s been a while since Slovenia’s Ilka Štuhec has been a force in the World Cup. With a few exceptions, Štuhec has struggled to crack the top 20 in the last three seasons but is experiencing a bit of a resurgence, earning a pair of fifth-place finishes in Lake Louise and an impressive second-place finish in St. Moritz. Curtoni’s day one win in St. Moritz, combined with a pair of eighth-place finishes, lands her fourth in the downhill ranking. Austria’s Nina Ortlieb rounds out the top five with a second-place finish in Lake Louise and a pair of sixth-place finishes earning her fifth in the standings and completing the top five.

Slalom Standings 

The slalom will always be Mikaela Shiffrin’s home turf. Thursday’s win under the lights in Semmering seems a fitting spotlight for her 50th career slalom win and 80^th all-time victory. Shiffrin kicked out of the gate early and established her dominance during the first weekend of the season. She claimed two wins in Levi, then added a fifth place in Killington and second place in Sestriere, earning her the discipline lead with a total of 425 points.

Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener is ranked immediately behind Shiffrin with 370 points. As mentioned, she accumulated a shared win in Killington and an outright win in Sestriere. Four additional top-ten finishes bolster Holdener’s point count and give her status as one of Shiffrin’s main competitors for the slalom Crystal Globe.

Vlohova needs to start winning

Vlhová has been forever in the shadow of Shiffrin and has yet to get a slalom win this season. That said, the 2022 Olympic slalom gold medalist has run up an impressive string of solid outings. She has netted three third-place finishes to add to two fourth-place results. A tech specialist, those slalom and giant slalom points keep her competitive with Shiffrin in both the slalom title and the chase for the overall title.

Rounding out spots four and five are Sweden’s Anna Swenn-Larsson and Germany’s Lena Duerr. These women are always a threat and jockey for podium positions in the slalom. Swenn-Larsson paired a second-place finish in Levi and a tied first-place finish in Killington (with Holdener) to earn her fourth place in the standings. Lena Duerr is a talented slalom specialist who remains a top contender in the discipline. Duerr came into the season in top form, claiming a pair of fourth-place finishes in Levi. She followed up in Semmering with her first season podium appearance finishing in third place behind Shiffrin and Paula Moltzan.

Giant Slalom Standings

It’s no surprise Italy’s Marta Bassino tops the leaderboard in the giant slalom by churning out a string of consistent performances reminiscent of her 2020/21 campaign that earned her the giant slalom Crystal Globe. She showed speed early in the season, skiing to a second-place finish in Killington, followed by a win in Sestriere and a pair of third-place finishes in Semmering. Her performance has earned her 300 points and the lead in the discipline standings. Bassino is a strong giant slalom skier, and if past performance indicates future performance, she will be a strong contender and go ski tip to ski tip with any competitor.

With her two recent stunning wins in Semmering, it’s easy to assume Shiffrin would top the leaderboard.. While she no doubt has a tidal wave of momentum going forward, a slower start earlier in the season with a disappointing thirteenth finish in Killington and only a sixth place in Sestriere finds her 40 points behind Bassino.  But heck, it’s only 40 points, the season is still very young, and hey, it’s Shiffrin we’re talking about here.  

When it comes to the giant slalom, Gut-Behrami (Beijing bronze medalist), Petra Vlhová ( giant slalom globe runner-up in 2019 and 2020), and Brignone (2020 Crystal Globe winner) will always be in the mix. Of these racers, it’s notable that Slovakia’s Petra Vlhová seems to be on the brink of a breakthrough. While she has yet to claim a giant slalom victory, she skied to two podium finishes (Sestriere and Semmering) and was just off the podium in fourth place in Killington.

2021-22 GS champion

Notably absent from the top five giant slalom standings is Tessa Worley (FRA), last year’s giant slalom Crystal Globe winner. She has yet to make it to the podium this season. Not to be counted out, she has earned four top-10 finishes and sufficient points to keep her in seventh place in the discipline. With the World Championships in front of a home crowd in Méribel (FRA) on the horizon, Worley is a safe bet to be in full-throttle mode ahead of the World Championships.

Super- G Standings

Regarding the Super-G this season, because only two races have occurred, it’s safe to say things are too early to call.  As in recent seasons, Mikaela Shiffrin is capitalizing on the “extra-curricular” speed events to add to the significant points she earns in the slalom and giant slalom. While she elected to sit out the speed races in Lake Louise, her super-G win in St. Moritz is a strong indicator that focusing on the tech disciplines while being strategically selective with the speed events is a successful strategy. It has worked over the last several seasons and continues to do so this season.

Curtoni with a slim advantage

Italy’s Elena Curtoni maintains a narrow lead over the group of talented women with 120 points accumulated through a sixth-place finish in Lake Louise and a second-place finish in St. Moritz. Curtoni was last year’s runner-up in the discipline behind teammate Federica Brignone. Switzerland’s Corinne Suter was the winner in Lake Louise but finished a disappointing fifteenth place in front of the home crowd in St. Moritz. She is currently four points shy of Curtoni.  

One skier to watch this season is Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel. She has made a solid start to the season, turning out nine top-ten finishes in all four disciplines. Her efforts in the super-G include a third-place finish in Lake Louise and a respectable sixth-place showing in St. Moritz. These results slot her into fourth place in the super-G ranking. Sofia Goggia rounds out the top five with a pair of fifth-place finishes in each race contested this season.

It is clear, however, that the Super-G Crystal Globe competition is undoubtedly “up for grabs.” Corinne Suter is a likely favorite, as is reigning Olympic gold medalist Lara Gut-Behrami (not yet hitting the leaderboard). Last year’s globe winner Federica Brignone (ITA) has yet to have a strong outing this season but can never be counted out of contention.

So what’s next in 2023?

As of the date of this article, the season lies on the shoulders of Mikaela Shiffrin. Her success and record-setting pace are likely to continue if she can remain mentally strong and manages the stress that comes with her own and public expectations of setting records. She is all but a slam dunk for the Overall Crystal Globe and will likely earn both the giant slalom and slalom titles. There’s a lot of talent and depth in the downhill and super-G disciplines, so it will be harder for her to nab a speed discipline globe. As with Lake Louise, she may strategically sit out races as she previously has to limit the risk of injury and/or focus on the races she can more likely win. Oh, and of course, she will likely beat the victory records of Vonn and Stenmark.