On Wednesday, the alpine men start at the Ski World Cup in Flachau. In Austria, a slalom is on the program as a replacement for the canceled race in Zagreb. The first round will take place at 5.45 p.m., the final will take place at 8.45 p.m.
Henrik Kristoffersen: The Norwegian won both slalom competitions held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the end of February. He is the seventh winner of a men’s World Cup slalom this season and the first to achieve multiple victories.
With two more slaloms to go this season, Kristoffersen (356) is leading the race for the crystal globe. Having won that rating in 2015/16 and 2019/20, Kristoffersen might become the seventh man to win the slalom crystal ball more than twice.
Kristoffersen might become the first man to claim three consecutive World Cup slalom victories since Marcel Hirscher, who won four in a row in 2018. The Norwegian himself has done this before, when he won four slaloms in a row in the World Cup in January 2016.
Only Ingemar Stenmark (9) and Alberto Tomba (8) won more men’s World Cup slaloms in Austria than Kristoffersen (6).
Clement Noel: The Frenchman won the men’s slalom at the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 16, 2022. He is the third Frenchman to win the Olympic title in this discipline, following Jean-Claude Killy (1968) and Jean-Pierre Vidal (2002).
In the World Cup that season, Noël won the opening slalom in Val d’Isère on December 12, but failed to make the podium in the other seven World Cup slaloms. The Frenchman remained unsuccessful in four slalom races: one disqualification (missed goal) and three missed finishes.
Along with Jean Noël Augert (13) and Patrick Russel (9), Noël (9) is one of three Frenchmen who have won at least nine slalom races in the World Cup.
Manuel Feller: Manuel Feller has two World Cup slalom victories, the first of which was in Flachau on January 16, 2021. The Austrian also won in Lenzerheide on March 21, 2021.
After Ivica Kostelic (2), Feller might be the only man who can claim several World Cup slalom victories in Flachau.
Feller has already been on the World Cup slalom podium three times this season: second in Adelboden (January 9), third in Schladming (January 25) and third in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (February 26). Alongside Henrik Kristoffersen (3) and Linus Straßer (3), he is one of three men to have achieved more than two podium finishes in World Cup slalom this season.
Other co-favourites
This season the eight men’s World Cup slalom races have been won by seven different skiers (2 wins by Henrik Kristoffersen). Only in 1985/86 (9) and 1999/2000 (9) were there more different slalom winners in the World Cup.
In the men’s category, 15 different skiers were on the podium this World Cup season, just missing the record from 1985/86 (16).
Lucas Braathen (307) is second in the World Cup Slalom ranking this season. He might join Kjetil André Aamodt (1999/2000) and Henrik Kristoffersen (2015/16, 2019/20) as Norway’s men’s slalom crystal ball winners.
Braathen (21 years and 335 days on 20 March 2022) might become the third youngest Norwegian winner of a crystal globe, following Aamodt (21y-207d) – giant slalom and super G globe in 1993 – and Kristoffersen (21y-262d) – slalom Globe 2016.
This season, Braathen took his first podium finishes in World Cup slalom: he won in Wengen on January 16 and finished second in Kitzbühel on January 22.
Linus Strasser is currently third in the race for the slalom crystal ball this season. The only German men to have won a World Cup classification are Markus Wasmeier (Super-G 1986) and Armin Bittner (Slalom 1989 and 1990), both representing the Federal Republic of Germany.
Straßer won the last World Cup slalom on Austrian snow, which took place in Schladming on January 25, 2022. It was the German’s second World Cup slalom win, following taking first place in Zagreb on January 6, 2021.
Johannes Strolz won a record three medals in alpine skiing at the Beijing Winter Olympics. He won gold in the alpine combined and in the team competition and silver in the slalom.
At the beginning of this season, Strolz won the World Cup slalom in Adelboden on January 9th. This is his first and so far only slalom podium in the World Cup.
Sebastian Foss Solevåg won two slaloms in the World Cup, on January 17, 2021 in Flachau and on December 22, 2021 in Madonna di Campiglio. The Norwegian also won the 2021 slalom world title and took Olympic bronze in Beijing.
Alongside Ivica Kostelic (2), Solevåg might be the only man to have multiple World Cup slalom victories in Flachau.
Dave Ryding, fourth in the slalom classification, might become the first British alpine skier to finish in the top three in a World Cup classification. His slalom win in Kitzbuehel earlier this season was the first World Cup win by a British alpine skier.
The men’s ski world cup calendar for the 2021/22 season
The women’s ski world cup calendar for the 2021/22 season 
Those: www.FIS-Ski.com
Translation service: DeepL