The International Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine Ski World Cup, the premier circuit for alpine skiing competition, began in January 1967, and the season marked the 54th consecutive year for the FIS World Cup. As it had every year since 2006 (when the Sölden races were cancelled by a snowstorm), the season began in Sölden, Austria in October. The season was supposed to end with the World Cup finals in March, which were to be held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy for the first time since they began in 1993, but the finals were cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy.
As part of an effort to control the expansion of the World Cup circuit while fighting increased specialization, the city events were dropped this season, to be replaced by more parallel events at regular venues, while the Alpine combined was expanded. Due to the recent dominance of slalom specialists in the Alpine combined races, the format for that discipline was changed this season. As was previously the case, the first run continued to be the speed discipline (with Super-G having the preference over downhill). However, instead of the slalom run starting in reverse order of finish in the speed run, which allowed the slalom specialists (who tended to be slower in the speed run) to tackle fresh snow for their slalom run, while the speed specialists had to face the more challenging rutted snow at the end of the day, the skiers in the slalom run now started in the same order as the finish of the speed run, with the leader after the speed run becoming the first to race on the fresh slalom course.
Parallel format was also changed to make the race more TV-friendly. Parallel races now began with one classic qualification run with a single competitor on the slope (which was shown in the live TV broadcast), after which the top 32 qualifiers by time advanced to the elimination phase of the main competition. The round of 32 used the current run and re-run format, so that each competitor got to start from each side, but from the round of 16 forward, there was only one run per race and a direct knockout system. However, the new format immediately became controversial, as making two giant slalom courses equal in a single-run format proved impossible, and both the first men's and women's parallel giant slalom races suffered from "the luck of the draw" becoming determinative—in the men's race, all eight round-of-16 matches were won by the racer on the same randomly-selected course, and in the women's race, 17 of 20 winners came from the same course.
In addition, a new sixth discipline—parallel events (which combined parallel giant slalom and parallel slalom in points distribution)—was introduced, joining downhill, Super-G, giant slalom, slalom, and combined. A small crystal globe was to be awarded to the winner.
On 1 February 2020, then-women's World Cup overall leader (and 3-time defending champion) Mikaela Shiffrin's father Jeff suffered grave injuries in an accident, and Shiffrin immediately left the World Cup tour. His injuries proved fatal, and Shiffrin remained off the tour for the rest of the season.
Men The number of races in the World Cup history Total DH SG GS SL AC PS PG Winners1782 496 217 419 497 134 2 6 10 1 291 including DH in Kvitfjell (7 March 2020)
Calendar + Event key: DH – Downhill, SL – Slalom, GS – Giant slalom, SG – Super giant slalom, AC – Alpine combined, PG – Parallel giant slalom # Event Date Venue Type Winner Second Third Details1747127 October 2019 SöldenGS 413 Alexis Pinturault Mathieu Faivre Žan Kranjec 1748224 November 2019 LeviSL 489 Henrik Kristoffersen Clément Noël Daniel Yule 1749330 November 2019 Lake LouiseDH 488 Thomas Dreßen Dominik Paris Beat Feuz Carlo Janka 175041 December 2019 SG 212 Matthias Mayer Dominik Paris Vincent Kriechmayr Mauro Caviezel 175156 December 2019 Beaver CreekSG 213 Marco Odermatt Aleksander Aamodt Kilde Matthias Mayer 175267 December 2019 DH 489 Beat Feuz Johan Clarey Vincent Kriechmayr 175378 December 2019 GS 414 Tommy Ford Henrik Kristoffersen Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen 15 December 2019 Val d'IsèreGS cnx heavy snow and wind; moved to Hinterstoder on 1 March17548 15 December 2019 SL 490 Alexis Pinturault André Myhrer Stefano Gross17559 20 December 2019 Val Gardena/GrödenSG 214 Vincent Kriechmayr Kjetil Jansrud Thomas Dreßen 21 December 2019 DH cnx heavy snowfall; rescheduled in Bormio on 27 December17561022 December 2019 Alta BadiaGS 415 Henrik Kristoffersen Cyprien Sarrazin Žan Kranjec17571123 December 2019 PG 005 Rasmus Windingstad Stefan Luitz Roland Leitinger175812 27 December 2019 BormioDH 490 Dominik Paris Beat Feuz Matthias Mayer17591328 December 2019 DH 491 Dominik Paris Urs Kryenbühl Beat Feuz17601429 December 2019 AC 132 Alexis Pinturault Aleksander Aamodt Kilde Loïc Meillard1761155 January 2020 ZagrebSL 491 Clément Noël Ramon Zenhäusern Alex Vinatzer1762168 January 2020 Madonna di CampiglioSL 492 Daniel Yule Henrik Kristoffersen Clément Noël17631711 January 2020 AdelbodenGS 416 Žan Kranjec Filip Zubčić Henrik Kristoffersen Victor Muffat-Jeandet17641812 January 2020 SL 493 Daniel Yule Henrik Kristoffersen Marco Schwarz17651917 January 2020 WengenAC 133 Matthias Mayer Alexis Pinturault Victor Muffat-Jeandet17662018 January 2020 DH 492 Beat Feuz Dominik Paris Thomas Dreßen17672119 January 2020 SL 494 Clément Noël Henrik Kristoffersen Aleksandr Khoroshilov17682224 January 2020 KitzbühelSG 215 Kjetil Jansrud Aleksander Aamodt Kilde Matthias Mayer 17692325 January 2020 DH 493 Matthias Mayer Beat Feuz Vincent Kriechmayr 17702426 January 2020 SL 495 Daniel Yule Marco Schwarz Clément Noël17712528 January 2020 SchladmingSL 496 Henrik Kristoffersen Alexis Pinturault Daniel Yule1772261 February 2020 Garmisch-PartenkirchenDH 494 Thomas Dreßen Aleksander Aamodt Kilde Johan Clarey1773272 February 2020 GS 417 Alexis Pinturault Loïc Meillard Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen1774288 February 2020 ChamonixSL 497 Clément Noël Timon Haugan Adrian Pertl1775299 February 2020 PG 006 Loïc Meillard Thomas Tumler Alexander Schmid17763013 February 2020 Saalbach-HinterglemmDH 495 Thomas Dreßen Beat Feuz Mauro Caviezel17773114 February 2020 SG 216 Aleksander Aamodt Kilde Mauro Caviezel Thomas Dreßen 15 February 2020 YanqingDH cnx Cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic; rescheduled in Saalbach-Hinterglemm on 13–14 February16 February 2020 SG cnx 17783222 February 2020 NaebaGS 418 Filip Zubčić Marco Odermatt Tommy Ford 23 February 2020 SL cnx weather conditions; strong wind17793329 February 2020 HinterstoderSG 217 Vincent Kriechmayr Mauro Caviezel Matthias Mayer1780341 March 2020 AC 134 Alexis Pinturault Mauro Caviezel Aleksander Aamodt Kilde1781352 March 2020 GS 419 Alexis Pinturault Filip Zubčić Henrik Kristoffersen1782367 March 2020 KvitfjellDH 496 Matthias Mayer Aleksander Aamodt Kilde Carlo Janka 8 March 2020 SG cnx Weather conditions; rain, wind and fog14 March 2020 Kranjska GoraGS cnx Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic15 March 2020 SL cnx 18 March 2020 Cortina d'AmpezzoDH cnx 19 March 2020 SG cnx 21 March 2020 GS cnx 22 March 2020 SL cnx
Rankings
Overall Rankafter all 36 racesPoints1 Aleksander Aamodt Kilde 12022 Alexis Pinturault 11483 Henrik Kristoffersen 10414 Matthias Mayer 9165 Vincent Kriechmayr 794
Downhill Rankafter all 9 racesPoints1 Beat Feuz 650 2 Thomas Dreßen 4383 Matthias Mayer 4244 Aleksander Aamodt Kilde 4135 Dominik Paris 384
Super-G Rankafter all 6 racesPoints1 Mauro Caviezel 3652 Vincent Kriechmayr 3623 Aleksander Aamodt Kilde 3364 Matthias Mayer 3245 Kjetil Jansrud 305
Giant slalom Rankafter all 7 races Points1 Henrik Kristoffersen 3942 Alexis Pinturault 3883 Filip Zubčić 3684 Žan Kranjec 3645 Tommy Ford 267
Parallel (2 PG) Rankafter all 2 racesPoints1 Loïc Meillard 1292 Rasmus Windingstad 1033 Stefan Luitz 824 Thomas Tumler 805 Roland Leitinger 73 Alexander Schmid 73
Slalom Rankafter all 9 racesPoints1 Henrik Kristoffersen 5522 Clément Noël 5503 Daniel Yule 4954 Ramon Zenhäusern 3235 Sebastian Foss-Solevåg 297
Alpine combined Rankafter all 3 racesPoints1 Alexis Pinturault 2802 Aleksander Aamodt Kilde 1723 Matthias Mayer 1404 Riccardo Tonetti 1405 Loïc Meillard 139
Ladies The number of races in the World Cup history Total DH SG GS SL AC PS PG Winners1666 417 238 418 469 106 6 1 10 1 249 including SG in La Thuile (29 February 2020)
Calendar