The 48thWorld Cup season began on 26 October 2013, inSölden, Austria, and concluded on 16 March 2014 at the World Cup finals inLenzerheide, Switzerland.[1] The defending overall champions from the 2013 season wereMarcel Hirscher of Austria andTina Maze of Slovenia. The overall titles were won by Hirscher andAnna Fenninger, also of Austria. The season was interrupted by the2014 Winter Olympics that took place from 7 to 23 February inSochi, Russia, with the alpine events atRosa Khutor.
The men's title was won by Hirscher for the third time in a row, becoming the first man to achieve this sincePhil Mahre in1983.[2] Hirscher secured the title after the second-to-last race of the season when he beatAksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who did not compete in slalom.[3] Svindal won both the downhill (second time in a row) and super-G titles (third time in a row). The giant slalom title went toTed Ligety of the United States. Ligety and Hirscher shared the same number of points but Ligety had more victories (4, as opposed to 2 by Hirscher).[4] This was Ligety's second consecutive giant slalom title and fifth overall. The slalom title went to Hirscher, who secured it in the last race of the season. The combined title was shared by Ligety andAlexis Pinturault of France, who each won a first and a second place in two combined races of the season.
Fenninger won the overall women's title, her first, and the first by an Austrian woman sinceNicole Hosp in2007. It was the first time since2002 that both overall titles were won by Austrians.[5] Fenninger secured the title at the super-G finals in Lenzerheide after her closest competitor,Maria Höfl-Riesch of Germany, suffered an injury a day earlier in the downhill which ended her season.[6] At the end of the season, Höfl-Riesch announced her retirement from the World Cup circuit.[7] Höfl-Riesch won the downhill title,Lara Gut of Switzerland won the super-G title and also most races of the season (seven, followed by five ofMikaela Shiffrin of the United States, who also won the slalom title). The giant slalom title went to Fenninger who secured it in the last race. There was only one combined event in the 2014 season, which was won byMarie-Michèle Gagnon, who therefore also won the combined title. Maze of Slovenia, the 2013 overall champion, was less successful this year compared to her record-breaking 2013 season. She won one race and four more podiums and finished fourth in the final standings. However, she stated that her main goal in the season were the Sochi Olympics, where she won two gold medals, indownhill and ingiant slalom.[8]Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein was another strong performer, holding a second place before the Olympics, but suffered an injury in downhill training in Sochi and had to skip the rest of the season, finishing fifth overall.[9] Returning from a knee injury at the2013 World Championships, four-time overall championLindsey Vonn of the U.S. appeared in only four races, all speed events in December 2013.
Marcel Hirscher
Aksel Lund Svindal
Maria Höfl-Riesch
Lara Gut
Ted Ligety
Sweden
United States.jpg)
