Hall of fame of Gran Risa - Audi FIS Ski World Cup

1985: First win for Stenmark.

The inaugural competition was sort of perfectly ‘godfathered’ in December 1985 when Sweden’s skiing legend Ingemar Stenmark celebrated his 80th World Cup win there – over a year after his last victory on the tour. It could not be a better start for the young race than to have such a glorious sports personality opening the long list of winners after celebrating a decade of amazing achievements all around the globe.
With a total of 86 World Cup triumphs in his career over a period of 15 years – from December 1974 to March 1989 - and an impressive collection of gold medals and crystal globes amassed during that time, the champion from Tarnaby remains “the” landmark of the technical specialties in modern ski racing.
The Scandinavian had enjoyed a 1984/85 previous season with plenty of top-5 finishes and four podiums – interestingly enough his great rival Marc Girardelli, a winner on the ‘Gran Risa, afterwards in 1992, won all four of them – yet for the first time since his maiden win in 1974 at Madonna di Campiglio ahead of Paolo de Chiesa, he was not able to celebrate a single victory that long winter dominated by Girardelli with a total of eleven triumphs.
It only took one more year to the ‘Squadra Azzurra’ to achieve another smashing team performance on the ‘Gran Risa’ when Val d’Aosta’s Richard Pramotton lead a clean sweep in the next competition in Alta Badia, winning it ahead of a little-known teenager from Bologna, Alberto Tomba, who turned 20 a few days later, while Oswald Toetsch came in 3rd . Veteran Stenmark, 30 years-old that year, ended a strong 4th!

2024

GS
1. Marco Odermatt (SUI)
2. Leo Augenot (FRA)
3. Alexander Steen-Olsen (NOR)

SL
1. Timon Haugan (NOR)
2. Loic Meillard (SUI)
3. Atle Lie McGrath (NOR)

2023

GS
1. Marco Odermatt (SUI)
2. Filip Zubcic (CRO)
3. Zan Kranjec (SLO)

GS
1. Marco Odermatt (SUI)
2. Marco Schwarz (AUT)
3. Zan Kranjec (SLO)

2022

GS
1. Lukas Braathen (NOR)
2. Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR)
3. Marco Odermatt (SUI)

GS
1. Marco Odermatt (SUI)
2. Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR)
3. Zan Kranjec (SLO)

2021

GS
1. Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR)
2. Marco Odermatt (SUI)
3. Manuel Feller (AUT)

GS
1. Marco Odermatt (SUI)
2. Luca De Aliprandini (ITA)
3. Alexander Schmid (GER)

2020

GS
1. Pinturault Alexis (FRA)
2. Mcgrath Atle Lie (NOR)
3. Murisier Justin (SUI)

SL
1. Zenhaeusern Ramon (SUI)
2. Feller Manuel (AUT)
3. Schwarz Marco (AUT)

2019

GS
1. Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR)
2. Cyprien Sarrazin (FRA)
3. Zan Kranjec (SLO)

PGS
1. Rasmus Widingstad (NOR)
2. Stefan Luitz (GER)
3. Roland Leitinger (AUT)

2018

GS
1. Marcel Hirscher (AUT)
2. Thomas Fanara (FRA)
3. Alexis Pinturault (FRA)

PGS
1. Marcel Hirscher (AUT)
2. Favrot Thibaut (FRA)
3. Alexis Pinturault (FRA)

2017

GS
1. Marcel Hirscher (AUT)
2. Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR)
3. Zan Kranjec (SLO)

PGS
1. Matts Olsson (SWE)
2. Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR)
3. Marcel Hirscher (AUT)

2016

GS
1. Marcel Hirscher (AUT)
2. Mathieu Faivre (FRA)
3. Florian Eisath (ITA)

PGS
1. Cyprien Sarrazin (FRA)
2. Carlo Janka (SUI)
3. Kjetil Jansrud (NOR)

2015

GS
1. Marcel Hirscher (AUT)
2. Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR)
3. Victor Muffat-Jeandet (FRA)

PGS
1. Kjetil Jansrud (NOR)
2. Aksel Lund Svindal (NOR)
3. Andre Myhrer (SWE)

2014

GS
1. Marcel Hirscher (AUT)

2013

GS
1. Marcel Hirscher (AUT)

2012

GS
1. Ted Ligety (USA)

2011

GS
1. Massimiliano Blardone (ITA)

SL
1. Marcel Hirscher (AUT)

2010

GS
1. Ted Ligety (USA)

2009

GS
1. Massimiliano Blardone (ITA)

SL
1. Reinfried Herbst (AUT)

2008

GS
1. Daniel Albrecht (SUI)

SL
1. Ivica Kostelic (CRO)

2007

GS
1. Kalle Palander (FIN)

SL
1. Jean-Baptiste Grange (FRA)

2006

GS
1. Kalle Palander (FIN)

SL
1. Markus Larsson (SWE)

2005

GS
1. Massimiliano Blardone (ITA)

2004

GS
1. Thomas Grandi (CAN)

2003

GS
1. Davide Simoncelli (ITA)

GS
1. Kalle Palander (FIN)

2002

GS
1. Bode Miller (USA)

2001

GS
1. Frederic Covili (FRA)

1999

GS
1. Joel Chenal (FRA)

1998

GS
1. Michael Von Grünigen (SUI)

1997

GS
1. Christian Mayer (AUT)

1996

GS
1. Michael Von Grünigen (SUI)

1995

GS
1. Hans Knaus (AUT)

1994

GS
1. Alberto Tomba (ITA)

1993

GS
1. Steve Locher (SUI)

1992

GS
1. Marc Girardelli (LUX)

1991

GS
1. Alberto Tomba (ITA)

1990

GS
1. Alberto Tomba (ITA)

GS
1. Richard Kröll (AUT)

1987

GS
1. Alberto Tomba (ITA)

1986

GS
1. Joel Gaspoz (SUI)

GS
1. Richard Promotton (ITA)

1985

GS
1. Ingemar Stenmark (SWE)

Four wins for ‘La Bomba’

The same Alberto – already nicknamed ‘La Bomba’ by World Cup founder Serge Lang in one of his stories - definitely anchored the ‘Gran Risa’ in the heart of Italian fans when he dominated his third race in a row a year later – following his surprising back-to-back victories two weeks earlier at Sestriere.
The superstar from Castel dei Britti won the two successive December races in 1990 and 1991 and was 3rd and 2nd in 1992 and 1993 before having another strong comeback in December 1994. That winter, he enjoyed in fact his third consecutive win in three days after his double slalom win at Lech, in Austria! The following year, Alberto was again 3rd in December 1995 in the race captured by Austria’s Hans Knauss which means that he managed to reach at least once the podium each time the race took place in December from 1986 to 1995!

Tomba’s spectacular achievements, the huge crowd attending the competition and the treacherous ‘Gran Risa’ run perfectly prepared by the organisers quickly settled the position of the race within the World Cup calendar, making it soon the most popular giant slalom competition on the circuit at the level of famous downhill races in Switzerland or Austria. No surprise that most of its past winners also excelled on medal events or clinched crystal trophies during their career – people as Marc Girardelli, Michael von Gruenigen, Frederic Covilli, Bode Miller, Kalle Palander, Daniel Albrecht, Ted Ligety or Marcel Hirscher to name the best known among them!

Herman Maier came close...

Only a small group of established giant slalom specialists could not achieve their search of ultimate triumph in Alta Badia – stars like Benni Raich and Hermann Maier from Austria, the Norwegian ‘twins’ Kjetil Andre Aamodt and Lasse Kjus and their successor Aksel Lund Svindal, giant slalom gold medal winners Rudi Nierlich and Stefan Eberharter or 2010 Olympic champion Carlo Janka – yet some of them managed to reach the podium once in a while.
In December 1999 Herman Maier missed the victory to France’s Joël Chenal by only 8/100 of a second days after finishing 6th and 3rd in downhill at Val Gardena – and celebrating a total of five victories in giant slalom, downhill and Super-G in previous weeks at Soelden, Lake Louise and Beaver Creek!
The Austrian superstar was also a couple of times 3rd – like in December 2004, a few months prior to clinch his last gold medal in giant slalom at the FIS Ski Worlds at Bormio 2005. With a total of 28 podium finishes, the ‘Herminator’ surely was an impressive giant slalom racer – besides being Olympic champion in that specialty back in 1998!

The Italian ‘Gran Risa’ experts

Some skiers turned out to be truly ‘Gran Risa’ experts as Italian David Simoncelli and Max Blardone who won four times together there and also reached several times the podium in past 15 years… Back in 2009, they even managed to finish 1st and 2nd and created huge enthusiast among their numerous fans standings at the arrival and along the course.

A winner of seven World Cup races in his career, Max also excelled on the most difficult slopes at Adelboden, Kranjska Gora, Beaver Creek, Val d’Isère, Soelden or Lenzerheide amassing a total of 24 top-3 results from 2004 to 2012. It was nice to see him dressed as ‘Superman’ in the finish area of the race a few years ago – the result of a bet with a friend of him.

Davide Simoncelli reached five out of his eight podium finishes in Alta Badia, apparently always very inspired by the thrilling atmosphere surrounding that particular race. He had raced a total of 15 times on the ‘Gran Risa’ – possibly kind of a record in recent years!

Marcel Hirscher, there’s nobody like him!

The Austrian athlete Marcel Hirscher has won a total of 67 Ski World Cup races in the course of his career, eight of them on the legendary Gran Risa. With eight victories in total, he is the ski racer who has collected the greatest number of victories on the Gran Risa, behind him there is Alberto Tomba with four. Another important detail about the impressive victories of Marcel Hirscher is that he was the only ski racer to win in all disciplines ever held on the Gran Risa: giant slalom, parallel slalom and slalom.
Eight, an important number for Marcel and for the history of Alpine skiing: he has collected eight crystal globes, triumphing eight times in a row in the overall Ski World Cup ranking. From 2012 to 2019 he dominated, in the truest sense of the word, the top circuit of Alpine skiing. In 2019, he finally decided to retire from ski racing.
GIULAN, thank you Marcel, it was a real honour to see you skiing on the Gran Risa and one thing is certain: "he has inspired many young people who will continue to impress the audience on this legendary slope in the editions to come".