ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. There are just a few days left before the Audi FIS Ski World Cup season 2013/14 gets underway on Soelden’s Rettenbach glacier (AUT). As every year, the first races of the season, a ladies’ and men’s giant slalom will provide some great action this weekend. The Soelden competition is the only World Cup race that takes place on a glacier, and over the years it has become a greatly anticipated opportunity for athletes to measure their new season form after many months of hard training both on and off the snow.

U.S. Ski Team: Ted Ligety, who won the Sölden opener the last two winters, leads a stacked group of nine starters including Bode Miller, Julia Mancuso and Mikaela Shiffrin into the 2014 Audi FIS Alpine World Cup season kick off this weekend. Lindsey Vonn trained strong in Soelden leading up to the race, but will focus her return to competition for Nov. 29 in Beaver Creek, home of the Vail Beaver Creek 2015 World Championships. (photo: Getty Images/AFP - Samuel Kubani)

Soelden first hosted the Season Opening in 1993 and this year it will be celebrating the 17th edition of the race. Only three races had to be cancelled during this time, the men’s and ladies’ race in 2006 and the men’s race in 2010.
 
Last Thursday, FIS Race Director for the ladies' tech events Markus Mayr conducted the official FIS snow control, and confirmed both competitions. He commented: "The slope is looking really nice, I don’t remember seeing conditions this good for the first race in 10 years. The snow is a good mixture of natural and artificial snow, making it great for training. The race slope could accommodate four full lines of giant slalom and a lot of teams were taking advantage of the training.”
 
Aside from  racing, as every year Soelden will be hosting a full schedule of side activities. Numerous press conferences, the announcement of the Skieur d'Or 2013 and other promotional events will ensure an exciting weekend to start the season.
 
In the traditional FIS Forum Alpinum 2013 scheduled for Friday, 25th October at 13:30 CET in the Freizeitarena in Soelden, FIS President Gian Franco Kasper and the defending FIS overall World Cup champions Tina Maze (SLO) and Marcel Hirscher (AUT) will meet the international ski media and answer questions under the moderation of Eurosport commentator Nick Fellows.

FIS news
23 October 2013 08:16

Final preparation before season start in Sölden

4 days to go before the stars of the Alpine Ski World Cup get together on the Rettenbach Glacier high above Sölden in Austria to kick off another tremendous and thrilling season. The Ladies will be the first to be battle for victory in the giant slalom held on Saturday while the Men's competition takes place on Sunday.

All teams are working hard to get ready on time and are currently putting the final touches on their long and intense preparation. Check out our latest Behind the Scenes video made in Hintertux in Tyrol, 2 hours away from Sölden.

What’s in the store for this new season? Don’t miss a minute of action.

Here is the program of the upcoming races:

Saturday 26.10.2013: Ladies GS 1st run 9:30 CET – 2nd run 12:45 CET

Sunday 27.10.2013: Men’s GS 1st run 9:30 CET - 2nd run 12:45 CET

FIS news
22 October 2013 15:30