Ski World Cup in Levi

LIVE: Slalom Season Opener! How Will the ÖSV Women Fare?

Katharina Truppe(Bild: AP/Gabriele Facciotti)

First slalom for the women in the 2026/27 World Cup season: Who will win the race in Levi, Finland, and how will the Austrian women fare? We’ll be reporting live (see below).

Here’s the LIVE TICKER:

Here are the current standings:

Mikaela Shiffrin’s absence leaves the women’s field wide open. Austria’s team leader Katharina Truppe is hoping for a close race.

Truppe isn’t sad about the slalom queen’s absence. “Of course it’s a shame, because you want to beat Shiffrin. But this opens the door for a new winner. I think it’s cool—it could be a close race,” said Truppe. The Carinthian didn’t want to set her expectations too high in the race for a reindeer sponsorship. “Not because I don’t want it, but because I’ve often been too excited.” Once—in 2019—she made it onto the podium up there in the far north.

Mikaela Shiffrin isn’t competing in Levi this year.(Bild: GEPA)

In “biting” minus ten degrees, Truppe warmed up on Friday for her first appearance of the World Cup season. She described the slope conditions as good, though the landscape wasn’t covered in snow. “It hasn’t been this green in a long time. But Levi is Levi—it’s just beautiful up here in the north.” Still: weather forecasts also predicted snowfall around the race days. Last winter was Truppe’s strongest. Once, in Flachau, she stood third on the podium, and she added half a dozen top-five finishes. That meant fourth place in the slalom standings.

Shiffrin and Vlhova have dominated Levi for a decade
Nine of the ten races went to Shiffrin, who will now skip at least the first two slaloms in Levi and Gurgl because she wants to focus more on the speed disciplines. A glance at the statistics shows what her absence in Finland means: Since 2012, the U.S. star has claimed nine victories in the Lapland Slalom, finished second four times, and third once. There was practically no getting past her. Only Petra Vlhova has been able to keep up with Shiffrin in recent years. The two have split the victories among themselves in the last 14 races.

Now Shiffrin is out, while Vlhova is competing in her first World Cup slalom in nearly three years. “I feel really good, both physically and mentally. I’m healthy, happy, and grateful to be able to do what I love again,” said Vlhova, who says she has overcome her long ordeal following a torn cruciate ligament and related complications. At the season opener in Sölden, she finished 23rd in the giant slalom; at the Olympics last February, the Slovakian already gave the slalom a try once: she ended up in 20th place.

Above all, the Swiss skiers Camille Rast and Wendy Holdener, Germany’s Emma Aicher, and Lara Colturi, competing for Albania, are the top contenders for victory in Finland, the first of ten World Cup slaloms. Of course, the Austrian women also want to have a say north of the Arctic Circle. Seven of them will be at the starting line on Saturday. Katharina Liensberger is back on skis after her serious knee injury, but Levi comes too soon for the Vorarlberg native. Katharina Gallhuber is also out after undergoing knee arthroscopy.