Wendy Holdener for slalom top step.     Mikaela Shiffrin should win Slalom gold; I’m picking Wendy Holdener.     I’m learning the Olympics are about stories, and about mood. Beginning with the understanding that winning, or just finishing well, in any given race has 50-50 odds, you then try to read pre-race nuance, the vibe.     My impression is that Mikaela is fed up with the Olympics , particularly how their overwhelming publicity ignores/belittles the World Cup, which is w

Julia Scheib will be on, and take first place. Giant Slalom is probably ski racing’s most competitive discipline; arguably its most difficult. Combining around 45-50 gates taken at 40+ mph, with average run time around a minute, two runs per race, GS demands constant technical precision at speed. Lara Gut-Behrami , IMO the most fiercely elegant Super-G racer of the past ten years, said winning the GS season title (2024) was her top achievement. Almost every Tech spec

Sofia Goggia will win Super G gold.     I picked Breezy DH because she was due for a winning run, was way stoked, and her 2022 Cortina backstory demanded triumphant resolution. Twice before I’ve felt certain of major athletic results: Oakland beating Washington in 1984 Super Bowl; Corinne Suter winning DH at Beijing. (Redskins edged Raiders earlier in the season, but Marcus Allen and Mark Haynes didn’t play. I knew Allen would score a touchdown; Haynes would prevent a touchdo

Breezy Johnson will be Cortina's big DH story.     The Olympics are basically an extended World Cup meet, with a rarefied cast. But they’re freighted with enormous symbolism, pressure/expectation, and unequaled opportunity for material advancement. The Olympics also generate intrigue within the civilian media, to engage people who otherwise think the competitors take a break from their jobs as teachers, librarians, lawyers, cabinet makers, etc. to assemble every four years to

Julia Scheib for the win. 2nd run at Mt. Tremblant - 7 December 2025     Kranjska Gora was a WAWC meet par excellence. Highly competitive, down-to-the wire racing with most of Tech’s Big People in top form. Though I’d watch Speed if a decision were required, the Technical disciplines’ two-run format generates sustained tension in a way DH or SG single runs cannot.      This was a pivotal weekend: Giant Slalom’s title shootout between Alice Robinson and Julia Scheib is now Sc

Lindsey Vonn circa 2018. I looked at several top racers same turn. They're stern, concentrated, serious. Except for this one. She's happy . This site hasn’t paid Lindsey Vonn a great deal of attention, primarily because she was retired when I started it. Racing or not, she gets plenty of attention—including an undo amount of the tabloid variety. Celebrity for its own sake isn’t my thing. Jealousy may be part of it, but generally I find it t

Big Guns loaded. WAWC's budding Chrissy-Martina? Lindsey smokes St. Moritz. 12 December 2025.     A superb Speed season is shaping up.     Three veterans, including a legend, should take the Downhill title down to the wire end of March at Lillehammer.  And a rapidly-developing young talent may be right there with them.     2xDH at St. Moritz on a slightly shortened track (finish a higher altitude due to low snow), but still fast and high

Mikaela Shiffrin at Copper - 30 November 2025     Mikaela Shiffrin is ruling Slalom. No surprise—she’s in top form, focused upon Tech, totally confident in her signature event. Of six Slalom runs over the three meets, she won both at Levi, finishing 1.66 ahead of 2 nd  place; both at Gurgl, to win by 1.23; 1 st  and 2 nd  at Copper, taking top step by 1.57. Dominance. Odds are against her running the season’s 10-race table…but I’d want a full second handicap every race befor

VERY unfortunately, getting on this post late saved me time.     In addition to Fede’s nebulous prospects for competing this season, and Marta certainly hors de combat until fall 2026, four more top-flight Speed competitors are now out.    Lara Gut-Behrami ’s left knee horror (ACL, MCL, meniscus) training at Copper in November probably means her transcendent WAWC career is over.     Lauren Macuga’ s right ACL tear, training at Copper, scotches her season.     Corrine Suter’ s

Sofia Goggia has a chance, IMO her best ever, to win the WAWC Overall title. With Fede and Lara out, and Mikaela focusing on Tech, Sofia is the most prominent 3+-discipline competitor. It would be a season “for the ages.”    Pulling it off hinges upon three things : stamina and Giant Slalom results; Shiffrin’s Super G points. Sofia can control her own affairs, not Mikaela’s. And she cannot control luck. But luck runs good or bad, for anyone—luck is a null factor until it’s s

Alice Robinson - Lenzerheide GS 21 March 2021 Run 2 - Full Tilt Boogie For me, GS 2 nd  run at Lenzerheide, 21 March 2021 , is as good as Tech gets. Ski racing’s greatest competitor duking it out with two brilliant youngsters, one just nineteen. The run--and the race—pivoted on youthful heroics challenging masterful tactics. The Master split the difference.     2020-21 was a trying season: Full Covid restrictio

Zrinka Ljutic - 1st run Flachau 2025     I participate in the World Cup fantasy racing site propheski.com . It’s fun—a great way to engage the sport by assembling teams of four for each discipline, and predicting the races' first 5 positions. I get pretty invested as the season progresses. It’s interesting how even a vicarious connection to a competitive activity hooks you, prompting anxiety/satisfaction/regret.     You have a $100,000 budget for each discipline at the beginn

First WAWC win--dominant, clean, confident--sinking in for Julia Scheib ...or maybe not quite yet. This was an excellent race, I think. Temperatures 17-26 degrees Fahrenheit, so the track was solid. Flat light. Occasional wind gusts at the top of the piste, which didn’t seem to significantly affect the event—though some racers may have been irked. Par for the course in ski racing.     Julia Scheib , 2025 EOS GS 9 th

Mikaela Shiffrin or Lara Gut-Behrami will win the 2025-26 Overall title. I give LG-B the edge. For the past three seasons, her combined GS , SG, DH EOS standings averages are 2025 4 th ; 2024 1 st (1.3); 2023 3d. I think she’ll retain that three-discipline consistency. Only Shiffrin can challenge her, and that’s if Mikaela dominates SL, goes top-2/3 GS, and has significant SG points finishes. (Shiffrin has said she won’t run DH this year, and SG will be sporadic.) Lara is a

I begin the season with how brutally engaging the mountains can be, for those who lose loved ones on the heights. These four young people’s deaths are neither more or less significant than another four. Within the context of this site, however, they are necessary to recognize. No other formalized sport’s contestants are so vulnerable to grave injury—not even auto sport, IMO. (Jockeys, if you consider horse racing. And motor cycle racers…those folks are gravely eccentric.) Tho

First post-season evaluation installment. Circa April for the most part; emotional immobilization stymied the project. I pecked away...

Saalbach Downhill - 23 March 2024 - 2nd place by +0.17 This is my first post since March because my post-season evaluation sprawls and...

26-28 January. 2xDH & SG A subjective, fairly mushy commentary on Cortina’s recent carnage. I considered discussing the ethics of track...

Valerie Grenier - Cortina DH - 26 January CORTINA  2xDH & SG 26-28 January 2024 Real-time notes I took during the races, with some...

Lara Gut-Behrami NOTE: Kronplatz’s 30 January GS widened LG-B’s lead to 85 points over Fede, from 25 before the race. This GS discussion...