Following a break for the World Championship in Bakuriani, Georgia in February, the FIS World Cup Tour returns for the culmination of the parallel giant slalom season.
The grand finale on Wednesday (15 March) will decide the big globe champion of 2023, while Saturday’s parallel slalom and Sunday’s mixed team events in Berchtesgaden, Germany wrap up the season.
After five of six races on the PGS tour – the Livigno, Italy edition on 11-12 March was cancelled – Ramona Theresia Hofmeister leads the way in the women’s standings on 327 points. The German looks set to wrap up a fourth consecutive title, despite a season plagued by a back injury. The second to fifth placed riders are more closely packed with the Swiss pair of Ladina Jenny (245) and Julie Zogg (224), Poland’s Aleksandra Krol (217 points) and Austria’s Daniela Ulbing (201) likely battling for the lesser placings.
The men’s edition is more closely contested with newly crowned world champion in the discipline, Oskar Kwiatkowski (POL) leading the way on 334 points with Austria’s Andreas Prommegger just 27 points behind on 307. Roland Fischnaller (ITA, 244), Benjamin Karl (AUT, 235) and Alex Payer (AUT, 208) sit third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
The overall tour sees Zogg ahead of Ulbing by 533 points to 491, while Hofmeister (472) is another contender, although the 26-year-old will have to see her rivals falter to be able to achieve a fourth straight overall Alpine Snowboard World Cup title.
In the men’s overall competition, after nine stops on the 11-race tour, the top four of Alexander Payer (AUT, 433 points), Maurizio Bormolini (ITA, 407), newly crowned PSL world champion Andreas Prommegger (AUT, 404), and Oskar Kwiatkowski (POL, 398) all have a chance of claiming bragging rights for the season in what looks like a hotly contested finale.
The final PSL of the 2022/23 tour will be on Saturday 18 March, and the mixed team event on Sunday (19 March).
