The men's giant slalom in the 2025 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup is scheduled to consist of nine events, including the final.[1] The season opened in Sölden, Austria on 27 October 2024. Through the first four events of this season, the discipline has had four different leaders.
The season will be interrupted for the Alpine Skiing World Championships, this time in Saalbach, Austria during 4-16 February 2025.[2] The championship in men's giant slalom is scheduled for Friday, 14 February.
Season summary
The first giant slalom of the season, scheduled as usual on the Rettenbach glacier in Sölden, Austria in October, resulted in a Norwegian podium sweep, with Alexander Steen Olsen leading the pack.[3] In their returns from retirement, former Norwegian star Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, now of Brazil after one year away, finished fourth, and former Austrian superstar Marcel Hirscher, now of the Netherlands after five years away, finished 23rd.[3] Pinheiro Braathen then assumed the overall lead by one point over Steen Olsen in the second race of the season at Beaver Creek, Colorado (USA), when he narrowly finished second (for Brazil's first-ever World Cup podium finish) behind only Thomas Tumler of Switzerland in Tumler's first World Cup victory (at the same site where he had his first podium finish in 2018).[4]
Back in Europe, at Val d'Isére (France), three-time defending discipline champion Marco Odermatt of Switzer4land scored his first points of the season with a narrow victory during dark and snowy conditions, but current Norwegian star Henrik Kristoffersen took over the discipline lead from Braathen with a fifth-pace finish.[5] The very next week, Odermatt won the giant slalom in Alta Badia and took over first place in the discipline from Kristofferson by one point (200 to 199).[6]
Finals
The World Cup finals in the discipline are scheduled to take place on Wednesday, 26 March 2025 in Sun Valley, Idaho, USA.[7] Only the top 25 skiers in the World Cup giant slalom discipline and the winner of the Junior World Championship in the discipline, plus any skiers who have scored at least 500 points in the World Cup overall classification for the season, are eligible to compete in the final, and only the top 15 earn World Cup points.