Lucas Pinheiro Braathen / Wengen 2025 / GEPA photos
Wengen males’s World Cup slalom: The deepest discipline in alpine snowboarding units the stage
The Wengen males’s World Cup slalom on Sunday, January 18, arrives at probably the most technically demanding venues on the circuit — and one the place gentle and visibility can subtly form the race.
In clear sky situations, daylight at Wengen typically improves visible distinction later within the first run begin order, serving to athletes learn terrain, rolls, and rhythm adjustments extra clearly. On a slope this complicated, imaginative and prescient may be decisive. With situations up to now wonderful, visibility might once more affect how the race unfolds for the upper bibs.
That nuance issues much more this season as a result of males’s slalom is essentially the most aggressive discipline in alpine snowboarding. By way of six races, 5 completely different skiers have gained, 9 completely different athletes have reached the rostrum, and 6 nations have shared podium finishes. There isn’t any dominant drive — solely type, execution, and danger administration.
Sunday’s race can also be the seventh of 9 slaloms earlier than the Olympic break and the ultimate alternative for U.S. males to qualify on standards for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic workforce. After Wengen, the dialogue turns to restricted discretionary spots, with the U.S. holding treasured few quotas and the chance of shedding one other earlier than workforce naming.
High 5 — males’s World Cup slalom season standings (after Adelboden)
This record displays who is definitely snowboarding finest proper now, not popularity or previous seasons.
1) Paco Rassat 🇫🇷 (FRA) — 1998 — 340 pts — Chief — HEAD
2) Clément Noël 🇫🇷 (FRA) — 1997 — 314 pts — –26
3) Timon Haugan 🇳🇴 (NOR) — 1996 — 285 pts — –55
4) Atle Lie McGrath 🇳🇴 (NOR) — 2000 — 272 pts — –68 — HEAD
5) Lucas Pinheiro Braathen 🇧🇷 (BRA) — 2000 — 271 pts — –69
After six races, the highest 5 are separated by simply 69 factors, underscoring the volatility and depth that outline males’s slalom this season.
Elite begin group: type, not popularity
The primary seed begin group reinforces the identical theme — a number of kinds, a number of nations, no margin for error.
(Bib order)
Bib 1 — Henrik Kristoffersen 🇳🇴 — 1994
Bib 2 — Loïc Meillard 🇨🇭 — 1996
Bib 3 — Clément Noël 🇫🇷 — 1997
Bib 4 — Timon Haugan 🇳🇴 — 1996
Bib 5 — Atle Lie McGrath 🇳🇴 — 2000 — HEAD
Bib 6 — Paco Rassat 🇫🇷 — 1998 — HEAD
Bib 7 — Lucas Pinheiro Braathen 🇧🇷 — 2000
This group displays present type, not historic hierarchy — a defining trait of the self-discipline proper now.
🇺🇸 Stifel U.S. Ski Staff: final probability on outcomes
For the U.S. males, Wengen is the ultimate race to qualify beneath the Olympic slalom standards. After Sunday, choice shifts towards discretion, with very restricted quota flexibility.
Solely two Individuals have scored slalom factors this season, totaling seven mixed, highlighting how unforgiving the self-discipline has been.
Bib 29 — Ben Ritchie 🇺🇸 — 2000 — HEADRitchie anchors the U.S. effort. Final season, he scored in 9 races, recorded three top-10 finishes, and posted a career-best seventh on the World Cup Finals. He completed seventeenth total, qualifying for the elite top-25 Finals discipline, the place solely the highest 15 rating factors.
Bib 47 — Jett Seymour 🇺🇸 — 1998 — Season WC SL Rank: 51 — AtomicSeymour earned his solely 2026 World Cup slalom factors with a Twenty ninth-place end in Alta Badia, however is exhibiting development.
Bib 52 — Cooper Puckett 🇺🇸 — 2003 — Season WC SL Rank: 48 — HEADPuckett scored 5 factors at Levi in his first profession World Cup slalom, a serious early milestone.
With Wengen’s terrain and enhancing gentle later within the first run order, timing will matter as a lot as aggression.
🇨🇦 Canada: expertise meets alternative
Canada fields one starter, however one with deep expertise.
Bib 63 — Erik Learn 🇨🇦 (CAN) — 1996 — Atomic
Learn has scored World Cup slalom factors in every of the final 11 seasons and has been near the factors this 12 months. On a hill the place terrain studying and imaginative and prescient are crucial, Wengen’s situations might work in his favor.
🇬🇧 Nice Britain: depth, momentum, and a farewell
Nice Britain arrives with 4 starters, three of them ranked inside the highest 30 this season — a strong indicator of program depth.
Bib 14 — Dave Ryding 🇬🇧 (GBR) — 1986 — Season WC SL Rank: 20 — HEADRyding, essentially the most profitable British alpine skier in historical past, is retiring on the finish of the season, making Wengen one in all his remaining appearances — a swan tune at one in all slalom’s most demanding venues.
Bib 23 — Laurie Taylor 🇬🇧 (GBR) — 1996 — Season WC SL Rank: 16 — HEAD
Bib 32 — Billy Main 🇬🇧 (GBR) — 1996 — Season WC SL Rank: 29 — HEAD
Bib 62 — Luca Carrick-Smith 🇬🇧 (GBR) — 2005 (Unbiased)
With wonderful snow situations and enhancing visibility later within the draw, GBR’s depth might once more translate into outcomes.
What to observe Sunday
Gentle and visibility as a aggressive variable
The deepest discipline in alpine snowboarding
Olympic qualification strain for the U.S.
Dave Ryding’s farewell run at Wengen
And a race the place nothing is predictable
Course setters — First run: Martin KROISLEITNER (AUT): Second run: Ola MASDAL (NOR)
Males’s Slalom Race
The lads’s slalom is ready for Sunday, January 18th. Run one begins at 4:00 a.m. ET / 1:00 a.m. PT, adopted by run two at 7:00 a.m. ET / 4:00 a.m. PT. Followers in Nice Britain can tune in at 9:00 for the primary run and 12:00 for the second.
The way to Watch
Day by day Program
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First Run Starlist
