Alpine Skiing at the 2026 Winter Olympics

After being held at very exotic skiing resorts over the last few Winter Olympics, Alpine skiing returned to Europe and to classical skiing resorts with Bormio for men and Cortina d’Ampezzo for women. But the two resorts were about 300 km, or at least a 5-hour car ride away from each other, which made them basically two separate tournaments, but that was quite normal for these Games.

The program had two significant changes as the mixed team event, after being contested only in 2018 and 2022, was eliminated as was the combined event, an event that was held regularly until 2022 after its re-introduction in 1988 but had undergone some format and name changes. These three events were replaced at MiCo26 with the team combined, one each for men and women, which was created only for the World Championships and Olympics. The event had one downhiller and one slalom skier partnering, with their times added together to determine placements.

The starting order for speed events had changed since the last Olympics. The top 10 racers of the World Cup starting list (WCSL) were drawn bib numbers from 6-15, while the next ten racers from the WCSL were randomly assigned bib numbers from 1-5 and 16-20.

The total number of quota places remained 306 as in Beijing 2022 and a nation was again allowed a maximum of 22 entries, 11 per gender. Eventually 149 skiers per gender competed, making Alpine skiing gender equal for the first time. The Games also saw a record number of countries competing in Alpine skiing with 84.

There were some remarkable comebacks as superstars Marcel Hirscher (AUT/NED) and Lindsey Vonn (USA) returned to racing in autumn 2024 after both retired after the 2018/19 season. While Hirscher did not make it to the Games due to injury, Vonn made it despite being again injured shortly before the Games, but her Olympic appearance ended tragically in a downhill crash. Right before the Games Federica Brignone (ITA) came back from injury, and had a sensational performance in Cortina, winning two gold medals. Another comeback was by Slovakia’s Petra Vlhová who started in two events after being out for almost two years due to injury.

The most successful Alpine skier at MiCo26 was Switzerland’s Franjo von Allmen, with three gold medals, while Brignone was the most successful woman with two golds. With Lucas Pinheiro Braathen (BRA) winning the men’s giant slalom for Brazil, an Olympic Alpine skiing gold medal went to the Southern hemisphere for the first time. Switzerland won four out of five men’s events but only managed to win a single women’s silver medal. The strongest nations among the women were host nation Italy and the United States, both winning 2-0-1 medals.

Sarah Schleper (MEX) participated in her seventh Olympics (four times for the USA and three times for Mexico) to set a record of participations in Alpine skiing of any gender. She also became the oldest female Alpine skiing competitor ever while her son Lasse Gaxiola competed for the first time at the Olympics.

Brignone became the oldest ever Alpine skiing gold medallist of any gender, when winning the Super-G at age 35-213, a record she bettered only three days later while also winning the giant slalom. Especially remarkable was that Anna Swenn-Larsson (34-245 / SWE), Jackie Wiles (33-212 / USA), Sara Hector (33-164 / SWE), Conny Hütter (33-106 / AUT), and Sofia Goggia (33-085 / ITA) all medaled at over 33-years-old, an achievement that only Lindsey Vonn had been able to accomplish previously.

The most successful manufacturer was Rossignol winning three gold, two silvers, and one bronze, closely followed by Atomic (3-1-1) and Head (2-4-2).