Camille Rast and Wendy Holdener produced a brilliant Swiss result in Kranjska Gora.
KEYSTONE
Switzerland has been the best skiing nation in each of the last three winters, but this season Austria is fighting back. Now the battle for the Nations Cup is closer than it has been for a long time.
- In recent years, Switzerland has been in a class of its own in the Ski World Cup, usually giving Austria no chance.
- But this winter, Austria pulled away in the Nations Cup – also helped by the serious injury to Lara Gut-Behrami, whose points Swiss-Ski missed out on.
- Switzerland has now closed the gap to Austria to 19 points thanks to the recent strong results of Camille Rast and Wendy Holdener in Kranjska Gora.
Who is the best skiing nation in the world? Switzerland and Austria are in a neck-and-neck race for the Nations World Cup this winter. After Austria pulled away to first place, Switzerland came back to within 19 points of our eastern neighbor this weekend thanks to Camille Rast’s double triumph.
- The World Cup points of all riders of a nation are added together.
- The following points are awarded for the athletes’ placings.
1. 100 points
2. 80 points
3. 60 points
4. 50 points
5. 45 points
6. 40 points
7. 36 points
8. 32 points
9. 29 points
10. 26 points
11. 24 points
12. 22 points
13. 20 points
14. 18 points
15. 16 points
From 16th place downwards, always one point less, until 30th place, which still gives one World Cup point.
In the last three seasons, Swiss-Ski has always won the Nations Cup, in the last six winters Austria was only just ahead of Switzerland in the 2021/22 season.
- 2024/25:
1. Switzerland 10,823 points
2. Austria 7,459 points - 2023/24:
1. Switzerland 10,882 points
2. Austria 9’287 points - 2022/23:
1. Switzerland 11’318 points
2. Austria 8’729 points - 2021/22:
1. Austria 10,667 points
2. Switzerland 10’410 points - 2020/21:
1. Switzerland 10’087 points
2. Austria 9’211 points - 2019/20:
1. Switzerland 8,732 points
2. Austria 7,694 points
But who scored the most points this season? Who has disappointed? blue News takes a closer look at the individual riders, divides them into categories and takes a look at the rest of the program.
The fact that Swiss-Ski fell behind Austria early on in the season is definitely also due to injuries. Last season’s overall World Cup runner-up, Lara Gut-Behrami, was injured for the rest of the season after just one race (3rd place in Sölden). That’s potentially over 1000 points that Switzerland is missing. In addition, another reliable points scorer, Michelle Gisin, has been injured and speed ace Corinne Suter has not yet been able to take part in the races – but she will return next weekend in Zauchensee. In the men’s event, Gino Caviezel is still hoping to make a comeback after his serious crash in Bormio last season.
Lara Gut-Behrami will not be competing in any more races this winter.
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Another top athlete in the Austrian team, Katharina Liensberger, has recently been hit by injury and will miss the rest of the season. Liensberger scored over 500 points last season. The season is also over for Stefan Eichberger. The speed starter suffered a serious injury in Val Gardena/Gröden.
Switzerland is also heavily reliant on dominator Marco Odermatt this winter. The 28-year-old has already collected another 855 points, almost double that of his Austrian namesake and first pursuer in the overall World Cup, Marco Schwarz.
Despite a weak start to the season, Loïc Meillard usually scores the most points for the Swiss men, followed by the speed specialists Franjo von Allmen, Alexis Monney and Stefan Rogentin, who have had fewer races (7) than the technicians (9).
For Austria, Vincent Kriechmayr is delivering consistently as usual, while Stefan Brennsteiner has risen to new heights in the giant slalom and is even leading the discipline rankings. Giant slalom world champion Raphael Haaser is also busy scoring points.
In the women’s event, Camille Rast outshines everyone from a Swiss perspective. Thanks to her two victories in Kranjska Gora, she is even challenging ski queen Mikaela Shiffrin in the overall World Cup. Wendy Holdener is the only other Swiss woman to have scored over 100 points.
Among the Austrians, Julia Scheib is having her big breakthrough season and leads the giant slalom rankings. Behind her, Austria has quite a wide range and seven other racers who have already scored over 100 points.
There is a big gap behind Loic Meillard among the Swiss technicians. Giant slalom specialist Thomas Tumler (best result 9th place) and the slalom skiers Daniel Yule (best result 11th place) and Ramon Zenhäusern (only 25th place) have not been in form so far.
Among Austria’s men, Manuel Feller has never finished in the top 10 and spoke of sporting and personal problems. Slalom specialist Fabio Gstrein (two podium places last season) has also not been able to finish higher than tenth.
Among the Swiss women, Mélanie Meillard, who was the eighth-best slalom racer last season, is disappointing – this winter she is still missing a top 10 place. In the women’s speed category, the experienced Priska Ming-Nufer has scored just eight points so far.
In Austria, more would certainly have been hoped for from Christina Ager, the speed specialist has not finished higher than 27th in four races so far.
The rest of the men’s program is pretty balanced, with seven speed and seven technical races each. The rest of the women’s race calendar tends to favor the broad Austrian speed team. There are still six downhill and six super-G races to be held, but only four slaloms and four giant slaloms.
- Men
6x Downhill
5x Super-G
4x Giant Slalom
7x Slalom - Women
6x Downhill
6x Super-G
4x Giant Slalom
4x Slalom
The Ski World Cup continues on Wednesday with a men’s night slalom in Madonna di Campiglio.
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