The 43rd

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

season began in late October 2008 in

Sölden Sölden is a municipality in the Ötztal valley of Tyrol, Austria. Geography At c. , it is the largest municipality in the country. The population of 3,449 (as of 2003) is outnumbered by tourists, of which 15,000 can be accommodated. With tou ...

, Austria, and concluded in mid-March 2009, at the World Cup finals in

Åre Åre () is a locality and one of the leading Scandinavian ski resorts situated in Åre Municipality, Jämtland County, Sweden with 3,200 inhabitants in 2018. It is, however, not the seat of the municipality, which is Järpen. 25% of the local eco ...

, Sweden.

Aksel Lund Svindal Aksel Lund Svindal (born 26 December 1982) is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer. Born in Lørenskog in Akershus county, Svindal is a two-time overall World Cup champion (2007 and 2009), an Olympic gold medalist in super-G at the 20 ...

of Norway won the overall title by two points over

Benjamin Raich Benjamin Raich (born 28 February 1978 in Arzl im Pitztal, Tyrol) is an Austrian former World Cup champion alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. With 14 medals won at Winter Olympics and World Championships, 36 World Cup race victories (in ...

of Austria. Svindal returned from a season-ending injury in December 2007, and also took the season title in super-G.

Lindsey Vonn Lindsey Caroline Vonn ( ; born October 18, 1984) is an American former World Cup alpine ski racer on the US Ski Team. She won four World Cup overall championships — second only amongst female skiers to Annemarie Moser-Pröll — with three ...

of the U.S. repeated as women's overall champion, taking the title by a substantial 384 points over

Maria Riesch Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, d ...

of Germany. Vonn also repeated as the season downhill champion, and added the season title in super-G. Being an odd-numbered year, a break in the World Cup schedule was for the biennial

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

. The 2009 World Championships were held 2–15 February in

Val-d'Isère Val-d'Isère (, literally ''Valley of Isère'') is a commune of the Tarentaise Valley, in the Savoie department (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region) in southeastern France. It lies from the border with Italy. It is on the border of the Vanoise Nationa ...

, Savoie, France. No pre-

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

World Cup alpine events were run at

Whistler Mountain Whistler Mountain is a mountain in the Fitzsimmons Range of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains, located on the northwestern edge of Garibaldi Provincial Park. It is the location of the Whistler-Blackcomb, Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort an ...

, Canada, during the 2009 season. In late February

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, a women's downhill and super-combined were run on ''Franz's Run'', the women's Olympic course. The most recent men's World Cup events on the ''Dave Murray Downhill'' course were held in late February

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

. The World Cup races in North America were switched to the early part of the season in the fall of

, and the men's speed events at Whistler were canceled three consecutive years (December

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

– 98) due to weather issues, which prompted the switch to Lake Louise in Alberta in December

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

Calendar

Men

Ladies

Nations team event

Men's standings

Overall

Downhill

Super-G

Giant slalom

Slalom

Super combined

Ladies' standings

Overall

Downhill

Super-G

Giant slalom

Slalom

Super combined

Nations Cup

Overall

Men

Ladies

Footnotes

References

External links

FIS-ski.com
– World Cup standings
Ski Racing.com
– U.S.-based magazine – alpine racing news
U.S. Ski Team.com
– alpine news {{Wintersport season 2008-09 2008-09