Bormio is a town and comune in the Province of Sondrio, Lombardy region of the Alps in northern Italy at the center of the upper Valtellina valley. This valley is a fundamental point in the history of alpine skiing. This is where champions such as Deborah Compagnoni and Pietro Vitalini started their careers and some of the most beautiful and meaningful pages of alpine skiing were written.
Bormio has a well-earned reputation on the men’s circuit as being one of the most challenging Downhill races in the world with racers facing a dark, fast, bumpy, and icy ride year after year.
Alongside the Streif of Kitzbuhel, the Stelvio slope is considered to be one of the most technical and spectacular slopes all over the world.
Champions of the caliber of Luc Alphand, Stephan Eberharter, Johann Grugger, Lasse Kjus, Hermann Maier, Daron Rahlves, Andreas Schifferer, Hannes Trinkl, Fritz Stobl, Bode Miller, and Michael Walchhofer have triumphed on the “Stelvio”.
It was inaugurated in 1982 for the first edition of the World Series. The course hosted two editions of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, in 1985 and in 2005. It also hosted two World Cup Finals, in 1995 and 2008. Since 1993 the Stelvio has yearly hosted the World Cup Downhill Men.
Racecourse facts:
Start Elevation: 2255m (Downhill)
Finish Elevation: 1,245 m
Vertical Drop: 1010 m (Downhill)
Distance: 3250m (Downhill)
Max. slope: 63 %
Bormio Program:
Downhill. Tuesday, December 28th. 11:30 (CET)
Super-G. Wednesday, December 29th. 11:30 (CET)
Super-G. Thursday, December 30th. 11:30 (CET) Replaces Lake Louise
Last season Matthias Mayer leads a 1-2 Austrian Podium in Bormio. In a spectacular Downhill, Mayer edged teammate Vincent Kriechmayr by +0.04 seconds for an Austrian 1-2 finish.
Urs Kryenbuehl finished in third place +0.06 seconds behind Mayer.
Last season Ryan Cochran-Siegle scored his first Alpine Ski World Cup victory in the Bormio Super-G. Cochran-Siegle beats Vincent Kriechmayr and Adrian Smiseth Sejersted to become the first American winner on the Stelvio since Bode Miller in 2007.
Dominik Paris is the man to beat on the Stelvio. Bormio means a lot to the 32-year-old as many career highlights, including his first World Cup win, have come in the Italian town.
He set the record of victories in Bormio: 5 Downhill races (2012, 2017, 2018, and a double in 2019) and a Super-G (2018). This equals the men's record for most World Cup Downhill wins at a specific ski resort, five by Didier Cuche in Kitzbühel.
The only male skiers to have achieved more than six victories in World Cup speed events at a single resort are Aksel Lund Svindal (8 in Lake Louise, 7 in Val Gardena) and Kjetil Jansrud (7 in Kvitfjell).
Paris is level with Franz Heinzer and Hermann Maier (all 15) in fourth place on the men's list for most World Cup Downhill wins. Stephan Eberharter (18) is in third.
He finished respectively 8th (Lake Louise), 5th (Beaver Creek), and 4th (Val Gardena) in his three Downhill participations this season. His last World Cup Downhill podium was a victory in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on 5 February 2021.
Matthias Mayer, the leader in the Downhill standings, finished 16th in the Val Gardena Downhill, ending a podium run of seven.
Mayer has not finished outside the top-10 in successive World Cup Downhill participations since November-December 2018 (15th in Beaver Creek and DNF in Val Gardena).
He won last year's Downhill event held in Bormio. He can become the third man to claim successive World Cup wins in this event, after Michael Walchhofer (two wins in December 2006) and Dominik Paris (four in a row from 2017 to 2019).
Mayer (6 in 2021) can become the second male skier in the last 17 years to claim more than six World Cup Downhill podiums in a single calendar year, after Beat Feuz (8 in 2018, 7 in 2019).
Matthias Mayer leads also the Super-G standings after two-second places (1st race Beaver Creek, Val Gardena) and a fourth-place (2nd race Beaver Creek). Mayer is level with Hannes Reichelt (both 19) in seventh place on the men's list for most World Cup podiums in the Super-G. Pirmin Zurbriggen and Didier Cuche (both 23) are in fifth place. Mayer claimed three World Cup wins in the Super-G, the last one in Lake Louise on 1 December 2019. Of the five previous World Cup Super-G events held in Bormio, three were won by Austrian skiers: Richard Kröll (1994/95), Hermann Maier (1999/2000), and Reichelt (2007/08).
By finishing third in the Downhill in Beaver Creek, Beat Feuz (now 42) broke the men's record for most World Cup Downhill podiums, held by Franz Klammer and Peter Müller (both 41).
Feuz is level with Didier Cuche and Kristian Ghedina (all 12) in ninth place on the list for most men's Downhill event wins in the World Cup. Michael Walchhofer and Aksel Lund Svindal (both 14) are in joint-seventh place.
He has collected three Downhill podiums in Bormio but never won.
Feuz (6 in 2021) could claim more than six World Cup Downhill podiums in a single calendar year for the third time, after eight in 2018 and seven in 2019.
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde has claimed three World Cup wins this season, two in the Super-G and one in the Downhill. Only Marco Odermatt (4) has won as many World Cup events among men this season.
The most recent man to claim three successive World Cup victories in the Super-G was Kjetil Jansrud in December 2016 (Val d'Isère, Val Gardena, Santa Caterina). Dominik Paris was in 2018-2019 (3) the last male skier to win more than two Super-G events in a World Cup season.
Kilde's three World Cup wins this season are already a personal record for him in a single season. The most recent Norwegian skiers to achieve more victories in one World Cup season were Henrik Kristoffersen and Kjetil Jansrud (both 5 in 2016-2017).
He could become the third Norwegian man to win the Bormio Downhill in the World Cup, after Lasse Kjus (1995-1996) and Aksel Lund Svindal (2013-2014).
Vincent Kriechmayr finished in the Top 5 in each of the last seven World Cup Super-G events, including wins in Kitzbühel and Garmisch-Partenkirchen earlier this year. He finished second in last year's races in Bormio (Downhill and Super-G). The most recent Austrian man to achieve more than two World Cup Super-G wins in a single calendar year was Stephan Eberharter (3 in 2002). Kriechmayr has claimed six World Cup victories in the men's Super-G, second-most among active skiers behind Kjetil Jansrud (13).
Marco Odermatt, the leader in the overall and giant slalom standings, has won six World Cup events in 2021: 4 in the Giant Slalom and two in the Super-G. The only Swiss man to claim more World Cup wins in a single calendar year is Pirmin Zurbriggen (9 in 1987).
The most recent man to collect more than two World Cup Super-G wins in a single calendar year was Kjetil Jansrud (4 in 2016). No Swiss man has ever won three World Cup Super-G events in a calendar year.
Odermatt finished in 24th place in the super-G in Val Gardena on 17 December, ending five successive World Cup podiums in this discipline.
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