2027 - Overall Contenders

Never too early to get ahead of oneself.

Barring injury, Mikaela Shiffrin will win the WAWC Overall and Slalom titles for as long as she competes.

   No one will beat her in Slalom; she’ll win the title(s) by at least 250 points. Over the past several seasons only Petra Vlhova, in best form, consistently challenged Her Highness. And I fear Petra won’t regain her top level. Katy Liensberger’s knee injury in January was a total drag; she’ll be 30 next April and has a few years to rekindle joy. Camille Rast is bound to win a couple races whilst HH remains active, then engaging tussles with Aicher, Colturi for SL.

    Shiffrin was EOS GS 4^th, despite recovering nerve in the discipline after being pole-lanced. She’s T4/3 shoo-in for the duration. HH will also start as many SGs as necessary to keep big globe in her mitts, and perhaps run a few Downhills for kicks. Though I imagine one event per Speed weekend is attractive re husbanding strength over season. Mikaela has five SG victories, and a season title. If she runs full SG schedules, no one except Emma Aicher will be within 400 points of her for Overall until she retires.

  Emma’s poised for Major Greatness. Turning 23 in November, her 2026 EOS positions are remarkable: Overall 2^nd, DH 2^nd, SG 3d, SL 6^th, GS 18^th. 1,323 total points, just 87 behind Mikaela. So far no serious injuries, or even significant minor ones, I believe. Aicher seems balanced, witty, and shrewdly detached from WAWC’s superficial media image crap.

   2024 was her first full WAWC season: 32 starts over the 4 principal disciplines. She had 3xT10, one each in SL (7^th), SG (10^th), DH (6^th). 2025 – 32 starts with 9xT10, including a win each in SG and DH; DH 2^nd.

  Then this season. 36 starts with 21xT10, including 3x1st, 3x2nd, and 4x3d. The kid broke through big time!

    Her Speed and Slalom trajectories are angled toward the constellations. Giant Slalom is her weak discipline. Emma had a 4^th this season, her best WAWC finish. Also a 10^th in 2026. Then just six T20 over her three full seasons. 12 DNQs, including 3 this season. 4xDNF total, which actually isn’t so bad.

    Aicher won GSs at the FIS level (several years ago). Giant Slalom is often considered the most demanding/difficult discipline, combining persistent technical turns at considerable speed (up to 45-50 mph). Emma’s Overall 18^th last season was 9 points ahead of Sofia Goggia…which really surprises me. Julia Scheib throttled everyone; Cami Rast 2^nd on 511 points, 209 behind frisky Julia, meant those lower than around 6^th were fighting for scraps. I bet Emma will put in a lot of GS vertical over the summer. Improving by 100 points, to 235, would most likely place T12/10 next season and require HH to run full SG to keep pace.

    Clearly, Shiffrin and Aicher will duke it out for Overall title, but how exclusively will they wrangle? To take the big globe, contesting three disciplines is necessary for everyone but Mikaela, and only when she annihilates the Slalom field. (Winning a discipline by 442 points is looney. And for all the reported drama—including mine—re Aicher challenging Shiffrin at the end, HH’s 8 SG points were meaningless. She took the title via Tech.)

 Preseason I asserted Sofia could win Overall with a Hippolytan 3-discipline performance. While her SG was superb, DH was way below par (EOS 7^th), with a pair of thirds sole podiums. GS, which has always been a project, didn’t improve (EOS 19^th from 17^th). She took Overall 4^th. Sofia will be 34 in November—I think she can Overall T5 again, but the younger competition’s in steep ascension. Goggia’s probably peaked; will stick it for this year’s Worlds, then radiate as mortal Goddess. One of the very, very Greatest.

    I’ll separately address Fede and Lara G-B along with Michelle Gisin and Lindsey Vonn—senior deities whose recent severe injuries would curb mortals. I’m surprised they haven’t retired, but they’re astonishing people.

    So who else has a hat to pitch into the Overall ring?

This season Camille Rast freed every beast and stormed the forest. Following a breakthrough 2025 Slalom campaign—2 wins, 5xT5 in 10 starts for EOS SL 3d—she finished 2^nd in SL and in GS, for EOS Overall 3d. 1049 points on two disciplines is excellent. Turning 27 this July, Cami is a confident, no-nonsense racer who can push Shiffrin almost as hard as Vlhova could. And her GS is slightly more consistent than her SL: GS—one finish over T6 and a DNF from 10 starts, and a 1^st, 2x2nd, 3x4th top finishes ; SL—4x10th or worse from 10 starts, with a 1^st, 3x2nd, 3d, 4^th.

   How can Rast vie for Overall? She is a decent Super G contestant, finishing 2^nd and 3d at the Swiss National Championships (April 2024). Though top racers—eg. Gut-Behrami and Corinne Suter—didn’t compete, and indeed Cami was at least five years older than the rest of the field, podium is still a fine result. She has only three European Cup SG starts, and no WAWC starts. So making SG worthwhile from a basic points-earning perspective—say, 60 pts to make T25—may be an awkward lift. Speed is always risky; every weekend would be a race weekend, little time to recharge during the season.

   Perhaps she’ll take a swing at SG, but I doubt it. Cami’s set as a Tech Big Person for at least five years. Taking a couple season titles in each, as well as Worlds and Olympics medals, is a solid career goal well within her grasp.

Alice Robinson needs to spiff up Downhill big time in order to compete with Aicher for Overall title. Alice broke through in SG this season—1^st, 2x2^nd, 4^th, 6^th, 7^th, with 16^th and 38^th as significant blemishes. She was EOS SG 2^nd, 163 points behind Sofia Goggia, who ran a magnificent campaign! Next season, if Robinson holds SG podium and regains her primo GS chops to podium, she’ll be in Rast’s top two-discipline realm (1000+ pts). But she’ll need at least 150 DH points to challenge for the big globe, and that means T15 or so. A big jump from 21 points for 36^th place. Whether summer training can get her to such a level is iffy, I’d say.

   Alice turns 25 in December; there’s no rush to crank up DH. Another couple seasons on GS and SG would be fine. This was her first season running a full DH card. (She’s been complete SG since 2022.) I’m curious why Alice’s DH is so far behind her SG. I guess the GS/tech prowess demanded for SG turns drops off in DH. Her best finish this season (21^st at Val d’Isere) was 1.76 behind 1^st; 0.53 from 10^th. Such narrow margins continuously boggle me.

IMO, Kajsa Lie is one of the most intriguing WAWC racers entering her “prime” years. Turning 28 in June, Lie is Norway’s senior Speed contestant, having been Ragnhild Mowinckel’s protégé for several seasons. Kajsa seems pretty extroverted—you know where she stands, and she's rarely stationary. 128 WAWC starts, evenly split between DH and SG, except for 13 GS.  She suffered a horribly fractured left tib/fib in February 2021 at Val di Fassa SG. Missed the 2022 season, returned to Speed in 2023, added GS the next year, and has been poised for 3-discipline excellence since.

 By now she should be primed, as well. Her SG’s solid: EOS 2x4th past two seasons, 5^th in 2024. Kajsa’s best EOS DH is 8^th (2023), SG 4^th (2025 & 2026). Thing is, she hasn’t paired top Speed results in the same season. 2026 DH 10^th and SG 4^th is the best, so Lie’s in a good Speed spot. Re Overall contention, however, GS is the wild card…a familiar situation for long boarders who need three events to pursue the big globe. Corinne Suter and Breezy Johnson gave GS a go, dropping it because the clock doesn’t lie. Lauren Macuga’s probably confronting the issue soon. 

    Kajsa Lie’s contested partial GS schedules for three seasons. Six starts 2025 the maximum; just three last year. A 10^th in 2024 best result; 2x16th and a DNF last season. Rather dismal, but I sense Lie’s acknowledging the obvious: unless she commits to the additional discipline in summer training and runs a full WC GS schedule, Overall contention ain’t gonna happen.

    Knee cartilage damage at Lillehammer SG, the season’s final race, may complicate summer plans, or perhaps help to clarify them. Bummer for Kajsa. I sense she’ll focus on Speed this season, to make both EOS T5. Perhaps a few GS if the wind is right. Then when Speed’s locked in, Lie will hit GS for a couple full-tilt Overall bids.

    Aside from Laura Pirovano really picking up GS, I don’t see anyone else from this season besides these three challenging Shiffrin and Aicher for the Overall next year, and probably for a few years beyond, after which Emma will rule.

    How about folks on the mend from pre- or early-season injury?

Lauren Macuga obviously warrants great attention. In 2025, her first full WAWC season, she was EOS DH 4^th and SG 6^th. ACL scotched the 2026 campaign before it began. Lauren will turn 24 in July. I suspect she’ll focus upon Speed for the next few years. She ran just one GS in 2025, at the final weekend in Sun Valley, scoring a respectable 15^th. Perhaps GS is in the future cards. We’ll see.

    Macuga has insane Speed talent. 2025 was a total WAWC breakout for her—EOS DH 4^th after 33d in 2024; SG 6^th following 13^th in 2024. Returning from ACL is always dicey. Some folks, like Gut-Behrami, continue to excel and even improve. Turning 25 in July, Lauren is well-placed to slot back into competition, but she doesn’t have much time to tinker if she wants to challenge the Big People, especially for Overall. I’d guess Macuga and her team will focus upon Speed for a few years, to wring out a couple EOS T4s, and hopefully a discipline podium.

Marta Bassino’s severe left leg injury—tibial plateau, MCL—during training in October knocked her out for the duration. I so hope she comes back strong. Recently turned 30, Marta had a strong year in 2024—EOS 3x9th DH, SG, GS, for Overall 9^th— her first solid 3-discipline season since 2020. (Her DH slipped badly 2021-23) 2025 was a regression, unfortunately.

    Marta is one of WAWC’s most delightful people; racing on-song, she’s still potentially EOS Overall T5. She was Overall 5^th in 2020; 6^th in 2021, her best finishes. EOS GS 1^st in 2021, by a healthy 126 points over Mikaela. If Bassino can reclaim GS T4 and SG T6 form, and stay DH T10, she’ll probably be in Overall T5 running. Turning 31 next February, Marta has a few more years to turn on, tune in, drop time.