The International Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine World Cup tour is the premier circuit for alpine skiing competition. The inaugural FIS World Cup season launched 50 years ago in January 1967 and this 50th season began on 22 October 2016 in Sölden, Austria, and is scheduled to conclude in the United States at Aspen on 19 March 2017. The biennial World Championships will interrupt the tour in early February in Saint Moritz, Switzerland. The season-ending finals in March will be held in North America for the first time in two decades: the last finale in the U.S. was in 1997 at Vail.
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Chief Race Director for the WC Tour, Markus Waldner, offered his pre-season thoughts on the pending 2016-17 tour in an early October interview. He addressed; early season scheduling and weather considerations, the growing global interest in alpine skiing beyond the core market in Europe and Scandinavia, the balance between what disciplines are scheduled and the marketability concerns each present, course construction that is safely competitive and manages risk, and a new change to regulation that allows top qualifiers to pick their starting position across a much wider range of bibs between 1 and 19.
Men
Women
The women typically have technical events in the U.S. in late November in Colorado at Aspen, but will stop this season in Vermont at Killington for its first effort as a World Cup venue. The most recent World Cup races in the Eastern U.S. were over a quarter century earlier, in March 1991 at Waterville Valley Resort, New Hampshire and the last in Vermont were in 1978 at Stratton Mountain Resort. The women will also get two Olympic venue orientation speed events in South Korea at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre in March.