2024 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Men's Overall

The men's overall in the 2024 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of 35 events in four disciplines: downhill (DH) (8 races), super-G (SG) (7 races), giant slalom (GS) (10 races), and slalom (SL) (10 races). The season was originally scheduled with 45 events, but the first three events of the season (a giant slalom on the glacier at Sölden and two downhills on the Matterhorn) were cancelled due to high winds and heavy snowfall. The cancelled giant slalom was subsequently rescheduled for Aspen on 1 March, and one of the canceled races from Zermatt-Cervinia (the Matterhorn) was rescheduled to Val Gardena/Gröden on 12 December. As discussed under "Season Summary" below, there were additional cancellations and reschedulings after the opening races.

As is the case every fourth year, there were no other major FIS events (world championships or Olympics) taking place during this season. The fifth and sixth current FIS disciplines, parallel (PAR) and Alpine combined (AC), were eliminated from future World Cup schedules due to a lack of participation or interest in staging these events, and a new event that had been contemplated on the tentative schedule for the season, a team combined (which had been planned for 20 January 2024 at Kitzbühel), was also eliminated and replaced with an additional downhill. Thus, for the second straight season, only the four major disciplines were contested.

Season Summary

Because of the three straight cancellations to start the season, the only race held before December 2023 was a slalom at Gurgl, won by the Austrian skier Manuel Feller, who thus held the overall lead. The next three races after that, speed events scheduled for Beaver Creek in the U.S., were also cancelled due to high winds and heavy snowfall, bringing the total to six cancellations with only one race held. When the second race was finally contested, all-discipline skier (and 2021 slalom champion) Marco Schwarz of Austria took over the overall lead by finishing second again, with Feller in second overall. However, the very next race, a slalom, was again cancelled due to overnight rains followed by new snow and high winds, bringing the number of cancelled races to seven (and now including each of the four disciplines).

The first speed races were finally held on 14–16 December, and the "battle of the Marcos" was finally underway. Swiss two-time defending overall champion Marco Odermatt's two third-place finishes in the first two speed races propelled him past Schwarz, who only managed a fifth, and into the overall lead by 15 points. At Alta Badia, Odermatt extended his dominance in giant slalom to six in a row, winning both races and jumping out to a lead over Schwarz of 92 points, with everyone else at least 250 points down. However, Schwarz's victory in the next race, a slalom (the only discipline in which Odermatt does not compete) moved Schwarz into the overall lead for the season by 8 points. In the very next race, a downhill in Bormio, the "Battle of the Marcos" came to an end for the season, when Schwarz suffered a season-ending knee injury, while Odermatt finished second and reclaimed the lead. Odermatt's victory in a super-G the next day gave him the season lead in every discipline except slalom and a lead of almost 400 points over his closest competitor who was still active, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of France, and then, in the second downhill, Kilde, which put the second of Odermatt's main rivals out for the season and left Cyprien Sarrazin of France, a former giant slalom skier turned speed specialist, in second place among Odermatt's still-active rivals. In the five speed races in Wengen and Kitzbühel, Sarrazin won three and finished second in the other two, drawing him to within 500 points of Odermatt – but no closer, because Odermatt won the other two, finished second twice and third once, thus allowing Sarrazin an overall gain of only 40 points. When Odermatt won the super-G at Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Sarrazin failed to finish, Odermatt's lead over Sarrazin in the overall championship went back over 600 points. Odermatt also won the giant slalom at Bansko, while the slalom scheduled the next day was rained out and not rescheduled.

Unfortunately for Sarrazin, he then became the latest skier to suffer an injury, this time in training, which forced him to miss at least the next two speed races on the World Cup circuit and for all intents and purposes ended his chances to catch Odermatt. After the races in Kvitfjell, with only 11 races (maximum 1,100 points) remaining in the season, Odermatt held a lead of over 900 points against all competitors. When Odermatt then won the next race, a giant slalom at Palisades Tahoe, USA (his 10th consecutive victory in the discipline), he clinched the overall championship for the season -- his third straight -- with a month (10 races) still to go. The following week at Aspen, Odermatt won two more giant slaloms, but the best performance of the weekend was turned in by his Swiss teammate Loïc Meillard, who placed second in both giant slaloms and then won the slalom on Sunday to move into third place overall for the season, just 3 points behind slalom season champion Manuel Feller. However, the last races before the finals, the technical races scheduled for Kranjska Gora, were cancelled due to a lack of snow (giant slalom) and heavy rains (slalom), which pushed the showdown for second place to the finals.

Finals

The last events of the season are scheduled for the World Cup finals at Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria. This season, for the first time, the finals will take place over two weekends—16-17 March 2024 for the technical events and 22–24 March 2024 for the speed events—with the last race for the men (the downhill) taking place on Sunday, 24 March. Only the top 25 in each discipline and the winner of the Junior World Championship in each discipline are eligible to compete in the finals, with the exception that any skier who has scored at least 500 points in the overall classification is eligible to participate in any discipline, regardless of his standing in that discipline for the season. However, only six racers (Odermatt, Feller, Meillard, Sarrazin, former overall champion Henrik Kristoffersen, and speed specialist Vincent Kriechmayr) were able to reach that 500-point threshold prior to the finals. Due to the reduced field, only the top 15 in each discipline will earn World Cup points.

Coming into the finals, Odermatt, with 9 victories in giant slalom and 2 in each of downhill and Super-G, had already tied the all-time men's record of victories in a season with 13. However, while leading the giant slalom final during his second run, Odermatt missed a gate, handing the victory (and overall second place for now) to his Swiss teammate Loïc Meillard. Meillard then finished fourth in slalom and second in super-G to clinch second place for the season, relegating Feller to third. Finally, continuing the season-long string of cancellations, the downhill final was also cancelled due to heavy snow and winds, meaning that ten men's races were cancelled and not made up during the season. However, the cancellation gave Odermatt the season title in downhill, and he had already won the titles in super-G and giant slalom, meaning that Odermatt became the fourth man to win four season-long titles, joining Jean-Claude Killy (1967), Pirmin Zurbriggen (1987, who won five titles if combined were included), and Hermann Maier (2000, 2001).

Standings

*
*
*
*

See also

* 2024 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Men's summary rankings
* 2024 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Men's downhill
* 2024 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Men's super-G
* 2024 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Men's giant slalom
* 2024 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Men's slalom
* 2024 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's overall
* World Cup scoring system

References

External links

Alpine skiing
at FIS website

{{DEFAULTSORT:2024 Alpine Skiing World Cup - Men's overall
Men's overall
FIS Alpine Ski World Cup overall titles