Competitors to Look Out for in the World Cup Ski Finals in Meribel

First up are the speed disciplines. Anna Fenninger has been dominating the Ladies Speed races this season. After winning all the races in Bansko last week she is in the lead in the World Cup Standings and will be looking to take home a crystal globe at the end of the season. However hot on her tails is the invincible Lindsay Vonn who beat the record for the most World Cup wins ever this season after her 64th win in Cortina.

The speed queen has been on the World Cup circuit for over 10 years now but she is not showing any signs of stopping and her determination to win doesn’t often let her down. One of the circuit’s most multi-talented skiers in the Slovenian, Tina Maze. Tina won the overall crystal globe two years ago proving that she can ski fast in all disciplines and she will definitely be a medal contender in Meribel. Alongside Anna Fenninger in the Austria team, Elisabeth Goergl, has already taken the Super G win in Val d’Isere this year and could well fight her way to the top of the podium. The Swiss team’s biggest hopeful is Lara Gut, one of the youngest competitors in the top group who has plenty of wins under her skis. Other girls to watch out for are the german, Viktoria Rebensburg and the Austrians Cornelia Huetter and Nicole Hosp.

The Austrian Men have also been top of the podium in the mens team, Hannes Reichelt and Matthias Mayer have been fighting for the top spot on the downhill podium for the last month in World Cup with as little as one hundredth of a second separating them. The French have a strong male team; Adrien Theaux brought home a third place from the World Championships in Vail. Guillermo Fayed, Johan Clarey and Brice Roger will also be joining the host nation team in Super G.

The season started off really well for the Norwegian, Kjetil Jansrud and after winning Gold in Vail he could step up to the top step of podium in Meribel. The Canadian surprise is Dustin Cook who finished in second place in the World Championship Super G this year coming from bib 28. Alexis Pinturault, France’s golden boy who is better known for his results in Slalom and GS will also be competing in the Super G and will be looking for a home victory.

The technical disciplines, Giant Slalom and Slalom, are up after the Speed. Anna Fenninger won the World Championship GS by over a second and has been skiing extremely well recently. Her Team mate, Eva Maria Brem has also had some World Cup victories in GS this season and will want to finish top Austrian. Fellow Austrians Kathrin Zettel and Michaela Kirchgasser have also shown medal potential.

The swedes Sara Hector and Jessica Lindell ViKarby have had a great season with quite a few podium finishes showing they deserve their places amongst the best in the World. The young slalom star Mikaela Shiffrin took home the first GS victory of the season in Solden and may well take the last one in Meribel. In Slalom, Shiffrin is the favourite but she has to beat the strong Swede of Frida Hansdotter, Tina Maze, the Austrians Zettel and Kirchgasser. From the smaller nations competing are Sarka Strachova from the Czech Republic and Veronika Zuzulova from Serbia. These skiers may not be from the top nations but they have had some fantastic end of season races and it would be brilliant to see some of the larger nations knocked off the podiums.

The men’s giant slalom should be an easy win for the Austrian Marcel Hirscher. Hirscher wiped out the competition in the last World Cup giant slalom by winning by over three seconds! Only 9 others in skiing history have won by such a huge amount and it is a tremendous feat. The previous GS star was the American star Ted Ligety who a few years ago was the overall Giant Slalom winner after winning nearly every race of the year. However he will need to put down some of his best skiing to beat Hirscher to the top spot. Ligety is has won the last two World Champion GS titles so when it comes to big events he is ready for action.

Aside from the big names the Italians have a very strong GS team and despite coming home from the Vail World Champs medalless they always have plenty of guys battling for a podium slot. The slalom stars are Hirscher, the german Felix Neureuther and the swedes Matthias Hargin and Andre Mhyrer. The French will be cheering on the current world champion Jean Baptiste Grange who took home his victory after a stunning second run in Vail.

Although there will be a lot of well-known names in Meribel fighting for the medals the best thing about skiing is that you never know what could happen. It is the finals and it could be anyone’s day to podium. Make sure you are Meribel to watch all the action from the bottom of the Stade or get on your skis and be up at the start to cheer on your favourites! One thing is for sure that it will be a week of adrenaline, excitement and amazement.