The men's slalom in the 2024 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of ten events, including the discipline final. Due to three prior cancellations in other disciplines, the first men's race of the entire season was the slalom held at Gurgl, Austria on 18 November 2023. The original season schedule called for 13 events, but during the season (as discussed below) three slaloms were canceled and not rescheduled. In an upset, Manuel Feller of Austria won his first career discipline title.
Season summary
On 27 October 2023, two days before the scheduled opening of the men's World Cup season, Lucas Braathen, the 23-year-old Norwegian who was the defending champion in the slalom discipline, announced his retirement from professional Alpine skiing, as part of a dispute with the Norwegian ski federation over his individual commercial rights.[1][2] The surprising aftermath of that decision was an Austrian podium sweep in Gurgl, the first race of the season, with Manuel Feller defeating Marco Schwarz and Michael Matt.[3] The Austrian victory ended a streak of 17 slaloms without an Austrian victory, dating back to January 2022.[3] However, the next scheduled race, in Val d'Isère on 10 December, was canceled due to a mix of overnight rain followed by new snow and high winds.[4] When the second race was finally held in Madonna di Campiglio, Marco Schwarz won it, coming from sixth after the first run, and took over the season lead in both the discipline and the overall men's World Cup.[5] By the next slalom, Schwarz had suffered a season-ending injury, but Feller won by .02 seconds to maintain the Austrian domination and also regain the overall lead for the season.[2]
In the next two slaloms, at the downhill/slalom festivals in Wengen (SUI) and Kitzbühel (AUT), Feller won[6] and then finished fourth (behind German Linus Straßer, who grew up and learned to ski at Kitzbühel), opening up an almost 200-point lead in the discipline.[7] Straßer also won the night slalom at Schlamding, less than 100 miles away, four days later to move into second overall in the discipline for the season.[8]
The next race, held in poor snow conditions in Chamonix, France after two prior races had already been canceled due to warm temperatures, featured a history-making comeback by Swiss slalom specialist Daniel Yule. Yule made a huge blunder on the first run and was the last of the 30 racers who qualified for the second run, meaning that he would start first, almost two seconds behind the leader; however, he put down a great second run and then sat in the leader's chair as all 29 remaining racers came down the increasingly melting and rutted course, with only two (his countryman Loïc Meillard and first-run leader Clément Noël of France) even managing to get within 0.3 of his total time, thus making Yule the first World Cup men's slalom skier ever to advance from 30th after the first run to 1st after the second run.[9].The race in Bansko the next week was then canceled after 31 skiers had completed the first run, because visibility was compromised by fog while the course had deteriorated due to persistent heavy rain.[10]
The following two races were held in the US, and Feller pulled off a come-from-behind triumph in the first (at Palisades Tahoe) to establish a 204-point lead over Straßer, who dropped from first to third on the second run, with just three races to go.[11] When the slalom scheduled the next weekend in Kranjska Gora was canceled due to heavy rains, Feller clinched the season title over Straßer.[12]
Finals
The World Cup discipline finals took place on Sunday, 17 March 2024, in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria.[13] Only the top 25 in the slalom discipline ranking and the winner of the Junior World Championship were eligible to compete in the final, except that all skiers who have scored at least 500 points in the overall classification were eligible to compete in any discipline. Because of the reduced field size, only the top 15 finishers in the discipline final scored points. In the finals, no skier with at least 500 points who wasn't otherwise eligible chose to compete, and one skier who qualified (Schwarz) was injured, leaving 25 racers at the start.
Since Feller and Straßer had already clinched the top two spots on the discipline podium, the only battle left was for third, and Timon Haugan of Norway jumped out to a big lead after the first run, then held off Feller, Straßer, and Meillard on the second run to claim that podium spot.[14] However, the bigger news was that immediate past champion Lucas Braathen announced his "un-retirement" and return for the 2025 season, but now skiing for Brazil (his mother's homeland) instead of Norway, where he will have full control over his individual commercial rights.[15]
