Everything You Need to Know About Women’s Alpine Skiing for Milan-Cortina 2026
Preview
Surrounded by mesmerizing Italian Dolomites beauty, the Olympia delle Tofane courses will be showcased like never before as the world’s elite female ski racers charge full throttle at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
All five women’s alpine ski events will be contested on the venerable piste, the same slope that Austrian legend Toni Sailer sailed to downhill gold on at the 1956 Winter Olympics.
Echoing the sentiments of most racers, Olympic skiing and snowboarding champion Ester Ledecka adores the visually stunning Italian course, which has been an annual FIS World Cup stop since 1993.
“I really like this hill, it’s my favorite actually,” said the Czech athlete Ledecka. “It has a very nice flow, a lot of challenging spots, and every year they groom the rollers differently, so every time we ski it, it’s a little bit different.
“I love how they prepare the course—there are ruts, but it’s not too icy, so it is really nice to ski. It’s always fun to come to Cortina.”
Passionate Italian ‘Tifosi’ will be cheering vociferously for the 33-year-old Sofia Goggia, the 2018 Olympic downhill champion and four-time World Cup race winner in Cortina. The extroverted Italian skier, who is known for pushing limits and taking unmitigated risk, sustained significant falls and injuries on the Olympia delle Tofane, in both 2022 and 2023. Yet, she always bounces back.
“For us Italians, it’s always a special place here in Cortina, and today I felt like I had my heart in my throat,” Goggia told reporters after her victory in January 2025.
The course’s Tofana Schuss signature section carries a 65% gradient and provides compelling theater for audiences. Racers dive between two colossal rock outcroppings reaching speeds over 80 miles per hour, embellishing the slope’s mystique.
Additional pivotal sections include the “Duca d’Aosta Jump,” the “Delta” blind turn, and the technically difficult “Gran Curvone” and “Scarpadon.” The downhill track runs roughly 1.6 miles and boasts a vertical drop of 2,500 feet.
Goggia’s Italian teammate and two-time overall World Cup champion Federica Brignone has made tremendous strides on her journey back from injury, having broken multiple bones in her left leg at the Italian championships in April. Her surprise sixth-place finish on her return to racing at a Kronplatz World Cup GS a few weeks ago was extremely encouraging. Nicknamed the ‘Tiger’, Brignone’s feelings run deep about the historic course and its spectacular setting.
“Always in love here—it’s an amazing place, amazing food, amazing atmosphere, and after skiing this snow today, I love it even more,” Brignone said, after a Cortina World Cup super-G victory last January.
Photo: Millo Moravski/Agence Zoom/Getty Images
Shiffrin Seeks Redemption at Fourth Olympics
Mikaela Shiffrin will pursue a third and possibly fourth Olympic gold medal, focusing on giant slalom and slalom, and potentially super-G.
The Colorado skier is also a reigning world champion alongside teammate Breezy Johnson in the new team combined event. Shiffrin is ecstatic to return to the Italian resort, aiming to make amends after missing out on medals in Beijing 2022.
“Cortina is one of my favorite places to be and I’m so excited to be in a place that is familiar,” Shiffrin said. “That familiarity is really key, especially after the last Games in China.
“The U.S. women’s team is stacked—we have a lot of women with medal potential,” she adds.
The Olympia delle Tofane slope is revered for hosting speed events, but it infrequently holds technical races. In giant slalom at the 2021 FIS World Championships, the last time the tech discipline was contested there, the Colorado racer skied to a silver medal, just .02 seconds behind Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami.
Shiffrin has experienced both success and setbacks on the frequently sunny piste. In January 2024, she lost control approaching the Tofana Schuss and barreled into the safety netting. Fortunately, the five-time overall World Cup champion walked away relatively unscathed with only a sprained MCL and tibiofibular ligament in her left knee.
Milan-Cortina 2026 Women’s Alpine Ski Race Schedule
The Olympic race program kicks off in style with the signature women’s Downhill on the second day of the Games, Sunday, February 8th.
Dual sport star Ester Ledecka will most likely not be at the start due to a scheduling conflict with the snowboard PGS, in which she is the two-time defending Olympic champion.
The Czech athlete is expected to join the alpine events in Cortina for the Super-G on Thursday, Feb. 12. It will be her third consecutive Olympic skiing/snowboarding double.
Sandwiched between the two speed disciplines is the new team combined event, taking place on Tuesday, February 10. Shiffrin and U.S. teammate Breezy Johnson joined forces to capture a world title in the event in Austria last February.
Tech events launch with the Giant Slalom on Sunday, Feb. 15.
All eyes will be on Shiffrin as she seeks a second Olympic slalom gold medal, her first coming in Sochi 2014 as an inexperienced 18-year-old. The Slalom concludes the alpine program on Wednesday, Feb. 18.
Photo: Fabrice COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
Top Racers/Contenders For Medals, Speed Events
Excluding home nation favorite Goggia, who thrives when the stakes are high, the women’s downhill could prove difficult to handicap.
The Lindsey Vonn comeback story continues dramatically on a piste that she has been victorious on a record 12 times (6 downhill, 6 super-G). Racing on a reconstructed titanium leg, Vonn disproved doubters with a World Cup win in the season-opening downhill in St. Moritz, on Dec. 12. Since her hot start, she has landed on three consecutive downhill podiums.
The 41-year-old racer, who captured Olympic downhill gold in Vancouver 2010 and bronze in PyeongChang 2018, seeks to defy the odds and age to attain a third Olympic downhill medal. However, upon Vonn’s return to Cortina last season after six years of retirement, she crashed two times over four days of training and racing.
To make matters more difficult, Vonn crashed and tore her ACL just one week before the Olympics were scheduled to start. She’s determined to compete, regardless of the injury.
Veteran Swiss skier Corinne Suter is striving to defend her Olympic title, battling to return to form after a training crash in St. Moritz in early December. She is attempting to become only the second racer to repeat gold in the event after Germany’s Katja Seizinger (1994 & 1998).
American Breezy Johnson rebounded from injuries and a 14-month suspension for drug testing whereabouts violations to win world championship gold last season. Johnson chases her first Olympic medal at her second Winter Games.
Michel Cottin/Agence Zoom/Getty Images
Flying under the radar is U.S. veteran Jackie Wiles, who has found top speed in Cortina before, landing on World Cup podiums in 2018 and 2024. When not charging downhill on skis, Wiles pilots Cessna airplanes.
Norwegian Kajsa Vickoff Lie, German Emma Aichner, and a talented Austrian squad led by proven winners Cornelia Huetter, Mirjam Puchner, and Stephanie Venier could all ski into the medal hunt.
Injured and unable to compete in Italy are Swiss three-time Olympic medalist and Cortina 2021 double world champion Lara Gut-Behrami and U.S. rising star Lauren Macuga. Both sustained season-ending injuries in pre-season training crashes.
Including the Czech Republic’s extroverted skier/snowboarder Ledecka, all racers noted should also contend for super-G hardware.
Photo: Millo Moravski/Agence Zoom/Getty Images
Top Racers/Contenders For Medals, Tech Events
Shiffrin continues to astonish in slalom, having won seven of eight races in her favorite disipline this Olympic season. Her dominat victories have come by ridiculous margins, including 1.66, 1.23, 1.57, 1.55, and 1.67 seconds most recently at a race in Spindleruv Mlyn in Czechia, where she begain her illustrious careeer 15 years ago.
Who will emerge as Shiffrin’s toughest challengers in slalom? Other than where to find the best pizza in Cortina, that may be the second biggest question asked around the Italian Olympic venue.
Shiffrin won Olympic slalom gold in Sochi 2014 and GS gold in PyeongChang 2018. The 30-year-old GOAT of the sport also claimed GS silver and slalom bronze on Cortina’s slopes at the 2021 world championships.
In addition to Shiffrin’s very capable U.S. teammate Paula Moltzan, other slalom threats shoulld include World Cup globe winner Zrinka Ljutic of Croatia, Swiss Camille Rast and Wendy Holdener, German Lena Duerr and Albania’s young sensation Lara Colturi.
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Smooth skiing Swede Sarah Hector is the defending Olympic giant slalom champion and will attempt to hold off Shiffrin and others to repeat in the event.
Moltzan, who has displayed good form standing on multiple GS podiums this season, and Nina O’Brien, who crashed violently in the Olympic GS four years ago, join Shiffrin leading Team USA’s charge.
Australian rising star Alice Robinson sped to her first World Cup victory in Colorado in November, while Austrian Julia Scheib is another maiden GS winner this season who carries the lofty expectations of her ski racing-nuts nation.
Related: More From Brian Pinelli
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