Alpine skiing World Cup

The alpine skiing World Cup is a circuit of alpine skiing competitions launched in 1966 by a group of ski racing friends and experts which included French journalist Serge Lang and the alpine ski team directors from France (Honore Bonnet) and the USA (Bob Beattie). It was soon backed by International Ski Federation (FIS) president Marc Hodler during the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1966 at Portillo, Chile, and became an official FIS event in the spring of 1967 after the FIS Congress at Beirut, Lebanon. The first World Cup ski race was held in Berchtesgaden, West Germany, on January 5, 1967. Jean-Claude Killy of France and Nancy Greene of Canada were the overall winners for the first two seasons.

Races are held primarily at ski resorts in the Alps in Europe, with regular stops in Scandinavia, North America, and east Asia. Competitors attempt to achieve the best time in four disciplines: slalom, giant slalom, Super G, and downhill. The fifth event, the combined, employs the downhill and slalom. The World Cup originally included only slalom, giant slalom, and downhill races. Combined events (calculated using results from selected downhill and slalom races) were included starting with the 1974–75 season, while the Super G was added for the 1982–83 season. The current scoring system was implemented in the 1991–92 season. For every race points are awarded to the top 30 finishers: 100 points to the winner, 80 for second, 60 for third, winding down to 1 point for 30th place. The racer with the most points at the end of the season in mid-March wins the Cup, with the trophy consisting of a 9 kilogram crystal globe. [ [http://www.fis-ski.com/cms/impression_page.htm?page_id=2400&gab_id=5&id_newsflash=18&URL=/fr/actualitesinformations/1687/newsflash2006 FIS NewsFlash, Edition 72, April 26th, 2006] ] Sub-prizes are also awarded in each individual race discipline, with a smaller 3.5 kg crystal globe. (See the section on scoring system below for more information.)

The World Cup is held annually, and is considered the premier competition for alpine ski racing after the quadrennial Winter Olympics. Many consider the World Cup to be a more valuable title than the Olympics or the biennial World Championships, since it requires a competitor to ski at an extremely high level in several disciplines throughout the season, and not just in one race.Fact|date=August 2008

Lower competitive circuits include the "NorAm Cup" in North America and the "Europa Cup" in Europe.

Overall winners

Multiple overall World Cup wins are marked with (#). For a complete list of winners in each discipline,
see Alpine Skiing World Cup Men and Alpine Skiing World Cup Women.

Most discipline World Cup titles

The records for most World Cup titles in each discipline are as follows:

Men

* Downhill: Franz Klammer (AUT), 5
* Super G: Hermann Maier (AUT), 5
* Giant Slalom: Ingemar Stenmark (SWE), 8
* Slalom: Ingemar Stenmark (SWE), 8
* Combined: Kjetil André Aamodt (NOR), 5

Women

* Downhill: Annemarie Moser-Pröll (AUT), 7
* Super G: Katja Seizinger (GER), 5
* Giant Slalom: Vreni Schneider (SUI), 5
* Slalom: Vreni Schneider (SUI), 6
* Combined: Brigitte Oertli (SUI) and Janica Kostelić (CRO), 4

For a complete list of winners in each discipline, see Alpine Skiing World Cup Men and Alpine Skiing World Cup Women.

Most successful race winners

A common measurement on how good individual skiers are is often the total number of World Cup races won during the skiing career. The following skiers have won at least 20 World Cup races:

Men

Women

World Cup scoring system

The World Cup scoring system is based on awarding a number of points for each place in a race, but the procedure for doing so and the often-arcane method used to calculate the annual champions has varied greatly over the years. Originally, points were awarded only to the top 10 finishers in each race, with 25 points for the winner, 20 for second, 15 for third, 11 for fourth, 8 for fifth, 6 for sixth, 4 for seventh, and then decreasing by 1 point for each lower place. To determine the winner for each discipline World Cup, only a racer's best 3 results would count, even though there would typically be 6-8 races in each discipline. For the overall Cup, the best three results in each discipline would be summed. For the 1971–72 season, the number of results counted was increased to 5 in each discipline. The formula used to determine the overall winner varied almost every year over the next decade, with some seasons divided into two portions with a fixed number of results in each period counting towards the overall, while in other seasons the best 3 or 4 results in each discipline would count.

Starting with the 1979–80 season, points were awarded to the top 15 finishers in each race. After 1980–81, the formula for the overall title stabilized for several years, counting the best 5 results in the original disciplines (slalom, giant slalom, and downhill) plus the best 3 results in combined. When Super G events were introduced for the 1982–83 season, the results were included with giant slalom for the first three seasons, before a separate discipline Cup was awarded starting in 1985–86 and the top 3 Super G results were counted towards the overall. The formula for the overall was changed yet again the following season, with the top 4 results in each discipline counting, along with all combined results (although the combined was nearly eliminated from the schedule, reduced to only 1 or 2 events per season).

This perennial tweaking of the scoring formula was a source of ongoing uncertainty to the World Cup racers and to fans. The need for a complete overhaul of the scoring system had grown increasingly urgent with each successive year, and in 1987–88 the FIS decided to fully simplify the system: all results would now count in each discipline and in the overall. This new system was an immediate success, and the practice of counting all results has been maintained in every subsequent season. With the ongoing expansion of the number and quality of competitors in World Cup races over the years, a major change to the scoring system was implemented in the 1991–92 season. The top 30 finishers in each race would now earn points, with 100 for the winner, 80 for second, 60 for third, and then decreasing by smaller increments for each lower place. The point values were adjusted slightly the following season (to reduce the points for places 4th through 20th), and the scoring system has not been changed again since that year. The table below compares the point values under all five scoring systems which have been in use:

Nations Cup

The Nations Cup standings are calculated by adding up the point totals each season for all racers from a given nation.

"NOTE: Results for West Germany and Germany are counted together in this table. All of Yugoslavia's wins are currently lumped in with Slovenia, since the skiers who won races for Yugoslavia all ended their careers racing for Slovenia, and thus are listed under Slovenia in online databases. The Soviet Union and Russia are counted separately."

A total of 22 countries have won World Cup races, with 19 different countries winning men's and women's races. As expected, the top 9 nations in this list match the 9 nations listed in the Nations Cup summary table.

Some interesting tidbits can be found in the data: Marc Girardelli accounted for all of Luxembourg's 46 wins, while Janica Kostelić has 30 of Croatia's 38 (her brother Ivica has the rest) and Ingemar Stenmark still has nearly one-half of Sweden's 177 wins more than a decade after his retirement. Some nations specialize in either speed (downhill and Super G) or technical (Slalom and GS) disciplines, while others are strong across the board. Among nations with 30+ wins, the Canadian team has won 70% of its races in speed events, while Yugoslavia/Slovenia has won 94% and Sweden 91% of their races in technical events, especially remarkable in Sweden's case given its huge total of 177 wins. Several nations with under 20 wins have 100% of them in technical events, led by Finland and Spain. In contrast Germany and Norway have the most even distribution without disproportionate strength or weakness in any one discipline. Some nations have strong teams in only one gender, as 91% of Norway's wins have come from their men and 83% of Germany's from their women, while the American total is split almost equally.

References

*cite book
last = Lang
first = Serge
authorlink = Serge Lang (skiing)
title = 21 Years of World Cup Ski Racing
publisher = Johnson Books / James Wotton
date = 1986
isbn = 1-55566-009-6 Also available under ISBN 0-246-13116-0.

External links

* [http://www.skiworldcup.org/ SkiWorldCup.org] - History of the World Cup - by Serge Lang (see also [http://www.skiinghistory.org/worldcuphistory.htm ISHA: History of the World Cup] )
* [http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/disciplines/alpineskiing/fisworldcup.html FIS-ski.com] - official results for FIS alpine World Cup events
* [http://www.ski-db.com/worldcup.asp Ski-db.com] - World Cup results database
* [http://www.canski.org/ Alpine Canada Alpin/Canadian Alpine Ski Team]
* [http://www.ussa.org/ U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association]
* [http://www.usskiteam.com/ U.S. Ski Team]

ee also

*Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics
*FIS Alpine World Ski Championships

*Skiing and Ski Topics