‘Fresh, excited, very hyped’: women’s best GS skiers kick season off in Sölden

Oct 21, 2025·Alpine Skiing

Who will end up No.1 in Sölden on Saturday? @AgenceZoom

It all comes down to this. Equipment testing is done, gym work completed, techniques honed. Now, on Saturday, 25 October at 10:00 CET the 2025/26 Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup season gets underway in Sölden, Austria. A season that contains the added, irresistible lure of an Olympic Winter Games.

“We are all nervous balls of anxiety,” Mikaela Shiffrin (USA/Atomic) said with a laugh recently.

The megastar with a record 101 World Cup victories to her name will be among those chasing a perfect start in the women’s Giant Slalom on the famed Rettenbach glacier.

Sights set for Shiffrin

The race is set to offer Shiffrin observers – and there are lots of those – plenty to chew over. The 30-year-old may have won more World Cup GS races than any other woman in history (22) and have 2018 Olympic and 2023 World Championship gold to her name in the discipline, but she still comes into the season-opener seeking answers.

A traumatic puncture wound suffered when leading the women’s World Cup GS race in Killington, USA last November put Shiffrin on the sidelines for two months, and left her searching for confidence and form on her return.

"I have been prioritising GS trying to get as much repetition in GS as possible, and I have done quite a lot more volume in GS than in past years. I am prioritising that over everything else," Shiffrin told the Associated Press during the off-season.

"My confidence is getting better - generally I feel more comfortable, and more able to accept the speed.”

That is what Shiffrin’s legions of fans want to hear. December 2023 in Lienz was the last of her 22 World Cup wins and another triumph on Austrian snow would no doubt be welcomed by the thousands preparing to party at the traditional curtain-raiser.

Robinson v Hector takes centre stage

The sad absence of Federica Brignone (ITA/Rossignol) – who broke multiple bones in her left leg and tore her ACL just weeks after finishing last season as the Overall, GS, and Downhill World Cup champion – certainly opens the door to Shiffrin. Although there are others who might feel like they are closer to the front of that particular queue.

Alice Robinson (NZL/Salomon) and Sara Hector (SWE/Head) both pushed Brignone all the way last season and will be looking to kick on.

No one was more consistent than the still young New Zealander. On the podium in seven out of nine World Cup GS races, Robinson not only grabbed her first win in almost four years, she also broke through on the biggest of stages, claiming her nation’s first ever Alpine Ski World Championship medal with GS silver at Saalbach 2025.

A likely battle between the 23-year-old and Hector, 10 years her senior, may well be a season highlight. The Swede has made the podium in at least four GS World Cup races in all four seasons since winning Olympic GS gold in Beijing in 2022. A record that not even Shiffrin can match.

Unlike Robinson – the 2019 winner – Hector is yet to triumph in Sölden, with a best result of fourth in 2023.

Gut-Behrami eyes golden farewell

No such issues for another familiar name. No one in history has better memories to draw on down the Rettenbach Glacier than Lara Gut-Behrami SUI/Head). A winner in 2013, 2016 and 2023, the 34-year-old has one final chance to draw clear of Tina Maze (SLO) as Sölden’s most successful female GS skier.

Fresh from announcing her intention to retire at the end of the season, Gut-Behrami will no doubt line-up full of motivation, and in good form. World Cup Finals winner in March, the Swiss veteran also claimed two second-place finishes in her final five GS races last season.

Add on the fact the 2026 Olympic piste in Cortina D’Ampezzo is one of Gut-Behrami’s favourites – she took World Championship gold in GS and the Super G there in 2021 – and the portents are good for one of the all-time greats to bring down her career curtain in fine style.

‘More tension than any other race’

Although there are several youngsters ready to flip the script and usher in a new era. The 18-year-old Lara Colturi (ALB/Blizzard) just beat 21-year-old Zrinka Ljutic (CRO/Atomic) to the title of youngest skier to appear on a GS World Cup podium last season. And both will be looking to grab a maiden win this time out.

Ljutic is certainly pumped to transfer her Slalom World Cup title winning form on to the Rettenbach.

It’s a long hill, it’s technically very challenging. It’s also at very high altitude, it’s a good wake-up call I would say to open up the season. And there’s so much tension, I would say much more tension than any other World Cup race. Everyone comes super fresh and just excited from a long summer break. It’s very hyped. But that’s what’s cool about it.– Zrinka Ljutic

Olympic glow

While the nerves are almost visible on the streets on Sölden, there is no stopping, even at this stage, minds drifting towards early February 2026.

“I think about it but I do not feel the pressure yet,” a laughing Marta Bassino (ITA/Head) said of the looming Milano Cortina Olympic Games.

With Brignone uncertain as to whether she will make it back for her home Games, Italian eye will turn towards Bassino. The GS World Cup champion in 2020/21 has struggled on the technical skis since that golden season, but a change of ski manufacturer has given the 29-year-old a new spring in her step.

“I started a new chapter of my life with these new skis,” Bassino said. “Ski training in Ushuaia (Argentina) went really, really well.

“For sure it’s (the Olympic Games) a goal. We will see how the season goes. I will try to arrive there well prepared.”