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It’s ski racing’s biggest event outside the Olympics and comes with the cachet of a world title to wear with pride for the next two years.
Alpine skiing’s FIS World Championships take place in Are, Sweden over the next two weeks with legends to be forged, names to be made and scores to be settled.
The event will also mark the end of an era – American great Lindsey Vonn will retire from ski racing after Sunday’s downhill because of the ravages the sport and its spills have taken on her body over the years. And fellow speedster Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway’s Olympic downhill champion, is also bowing out following an illustrious but injury-plagued career.
But very much at the top of their games are slalom specialists Mikaela Shiffrin and Marcel Hirscher, both bidding to add more gloss to glittering careers and defend the world titles they won in St. Moritz, Switzerland two years ago.
Here’s the top-five talking points for skiing’s World Championships.
So long, Lindsey
The 34-year-old Vonn has enjoyed a stunning career and amassed a remarkable 82 World Cup victories to sit second on the all-time list behind Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark.
Despite a catalogue of injuries, she was determined to give it one final shot at passing Stenmark’s record this season, but Vonn has finally succumbed to her ailing body.
“My body is broken beyond repair and it isn’t letting me have the final season I dreamed of,” she wrote on Facebook Friday. “My body is screaming at me to STOP and it’s time for me to listen.”
The American won super-G and downhill world titles in 2009, and fought back from injury to clinch bronze in the Olympic downhill in Pyeongchang in 2018 to add to downhill gold and super-G bronze in Vancouver in 2010. Despite only competing once this season because of a knee injury, a farewell world title is not beyond the realms of possibility.
But Vonn will still bid the sport goodbye as the most successful female ski racer of all time.
The world's greatest female ski racer Lindsey Vonn has officially retired from the sport after her final race at the World Championships in Are. Here's a look back at her glittering career.
She made her Olympic debut at Salt Lake City 2002 as a 17-year-old, finishing 32nd in slalom and sixth in the combined slalom/downhill event.
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Lindsey Kildow -- as she was then before marrying fellow skier Thomas Vonn -- won her first World Cup race with victory in the downhill at Lake Louise, Canada, in 2004.
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In 2005, Vonn signed with Red Bull and began working with a completely new coaching team. She seemed set for the start of something special.
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Any momentum from the new deal was slowed during the 2006 Olympics in Italy, though. A fall in practice resulted in a short stay in hospital. She recovered in time to compete but could only manage seventh in the Super G and eighth in the downhill events.
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However, Vonn quickly bounced back and won the first of three straight World Cup titles in 2008 at the age of 23.
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Golden girl Vonn achieved her Olympic dreams in 2010. She won the Olympic downhill gold at Whistler and added bronze in the super-G.
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Vonn added a fourth World Cup title in 2012, but is still behind Annemarie Moser-Proell's record of six overall crystal globes.
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Vonn's public profile went galactic when she dated star golfer Tiger Woods for two years between 2013 and 2015.
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In 2013, Vonn suffered an horrific crash at the World Championships in Austria. She underwent reconstructive knee surgery and began a long road to recovery. She attempted to return a year later, only to pull out of the 2014 Olympics after aggravating the injury again.
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Injuries continued to hamper Vonn. She fractured her left knee in February 2016 in a crash during a World Cup super-G race in Soldeu, Andorra, but raced the combined event the next day before calling an end to her season.
Vonn worked hard to get back in time to challenge for gold medals at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The American left PyeongChang with a bronze medal in the downhill but insisted she was proud to have made it through her injuries.
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Vonn announced the current ski World Cup season would be her last. She is already the most successful woman in World Cup history with 82 victories and was chasing down Ingemar Stenmark's overall World Cup record of 86 victories in her sights.
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However, a knee injury from a training crash in November meant she couldn't start her season until January. On her debut in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, she was still struggling with knee pain.
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After much soul-searching Vonn announced that she will retire from skiing after competing in the World Championships in Are, Sweden in February 2019. "My body is screaming at me to STOP and it's time for me to listen," she said.
Francis Bompard/Agence Zoom/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
In her opening race at the World Championships, Vonn suffered a heavy crash and careered into safety netting. She was eventually able to ski to the bottom and said she would still compete in the downhill to bring the curtain down on her glittering career.
Alexis Boichard/Agence Zoom/Getty Images
Despite her damaged knees, Vonn was able to retire on a positive note. She battled back to win bronze in the downhill -- becoming the oldest woman to secure a medal at a world championships and the first female racer to medal at six world championships.
The American retired four wins short of equaling Stenmark's record of 86 World Cup wins and the Swedish great (left) was in Are to watch Vonn's final race. "I basically begged him to come here," Vonn said.
FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARIT/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Lindsey Vonn: Greatest female skier retires
Svindal is one of the most dominant men’s skiers of his generation with 36 World Cup wins and five world titles.
He won three medals, including super-G gold, at the Vancouver 2010 Games and became skiing’s oldest gold medalist with victory in the blue riband downhill at the age of 35 last year.
A serious knee injury in a season-ending crash at Kitzbuhel in 2016 has left him unable to train much in recent seasons, reserving his efforts for race day.
He won a super-G at Val Gardena, Italy in December, but Svindal – one of Norway’s “Attacking Vikings” – accepts the end is nigh.
American skier Mikaela Shiffrin is arguably the most dominant athlete in sport right now. The 24-year-old has taken skiing by storm, winning 17 World Cup races across four of the six disciplines last season to take her overall tally to 60 victories. Here's a look back at her short but sweet career so far.
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2011 —
Shiffrin grew up skiing from an early age thanks to parents who were both competitive college skiers. She rose quickly through the junior ranks and joined the World Cup circuit two days before her 16th birthday in 2011.
The American (right) secured her first World Cup medal in December 2011, winning a bronze in the slalom. Her potential didn't go unnoticed as she was named rookie of the year.
The youngster continued her good form, winning a further three World Cup slalom races that season. She also struck slalom gold at the 2013 World Championships in Schladming, Austria.
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2013 —
She ended a remarkable season with a first World Cup slalom crown, which she defended the following year.
As world champion, the pressure was on the 18-year-old to perform at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. She didn't disappoint. Shiffrin became the youngest ever Olympic slalom champion and the first American to win the title in 42 years.
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2015 —
Following her Olympic success, the American won her third straight World Cup slalom crown in 2015. She also defended her slalom title at the 2015 World Championships.
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2016 —
A knee injury stalled her career the following season and she had to settle for fourth in the slalom standings.
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2017 —
Shiffrin was back to her best in 2017, though, winning a fifth slalom World Cup title and adding a third World Championship gold. She also won her first overall World Cup title.
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2018 —
As her reputation grew, so did her popularity and all eyes were on Shiffrin to perform at the 2018 Winter Olympics. She was affected by the weather-hit schedule and despite winning gold in the giant slalom and silver in the combined she missed out completely in slalom. But she won the World Cup overall and slalom titles again at the end of the season to confirm her status as America's new superstar.
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Shiffrin has been on fire during the 2018-19 season and has made waves beyond ski racing for her level of consistency and domination. She has climbed to fifth on the list off all-time most successful ski racers, and third woman behind Lindsey Vonn and Annemarie Moser-Proll.
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At the 2019 FIS World Championships in Are, Sweden she struck in the opening super-G race to score her fourth world title.
Alain Grosclaude/Agence Zoom/Getty Images
And she clinched a remarkable fourth straight slalom world title -- a streak stretching back to 2013 -- to go with a bronze in the giant slalom in Sweden.
Hans Bezard/Getty Images
Following the World Championships, Shiffrin won a World Cup slalom event in Stockholm to score a record-equaling 14th title of the season. She also wrapped up a third straight season slalom crown and sixth in seven years. She clinched a third straight overall crown when racing was canceled in Sochi.
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Soon after she pushed the record to 15 wins - unprecedented for men or women -- with a slalom victory (her 58th) in the Czech Republic.
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At the World Cup finals in Soldeu, Andorra in March, Shiffrin wrapped up a third Crystal Globe of 2019 with a first season title in the super-G.
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Mikaela Shiffrin: The most dominant sportswoman on the planet?
Her dominance this season has resonated way beyond skiing and drawn comparisons with greats from other sports.
The 23-year-old has won 11 of her last 14 World Cup races and 13 in all this season to climb to third on the women’s all-time list of most successful ski racers with 56 victories, just six short of Austria’s Annemarie Moser-Proell (62) and hard on the heels of Vonn.
Shiffrin won her first ever World Cup race as a 17-year-old in Are in December 2012, and returns to the Swedish venue bidding for a fourth consecutive slalom world title.
Her main rival this season has been Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, who has pipped Shiffrin twice but otherwise ended as runner-up six other times behind the American. The pair even clocked a dual victory with a dead heat in a giant slalom in Maribor last week.
An out-of-sorts Shiffrin missed a slalom medal completely in the South Korea Olympics, but she clinched giant slalom gold and will also be overwhelming favorite in that discipline in Are.
Among the main challengers will be Vlhova, France’s Tessa Worley and Italian Federica Brignone.
Marcel Hirscher is the standout male skier of his generation.
Christophe Pallot/Getty Images
Hirscher is one of Austria’s biggest stars and the pre-eminent male ski racer of his generation, and he goes to Are looking to defend his slalom and giant slalom crowns.
The 29-year-old, a six-time world champion across various disciplines, has been simply stunning in skiing’s technical events over the years and is well on his way to an unprecedented eight straight World Cup overall title. He has scored 68 World Cup wins and counting and could be the one to pass Stenmark.
Like Shiffrin, his Olympic slalom ambitions crashed in Pyeongchang, but he hit back with a first ever Games gold in the giant slalom and added a win in the combined.
Hirscher and his wife Laura had a baby boy last summer, but his fire seems undimmed and he has won 10 times this season to keep the competition at arms’ length.
Hirscher’s long-time rival Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway has been close without really challenging this season, but rising French star Clement Noel and Swiss Daniel Yule have taken up the chase in slalom.
Frenchman Alexis Pinturault and Austrian Marco Schwarz could be the dangers in giant slalom.
Swiss Beat Feuz is the defending world champion and arguably the most likely to deprive Svindal of a fairy tale send-off in Are.
The 31-year-old bagged bronze in downhill and silver in super-G in Pyeongchang and has scored five podiums this season including a downhill victory in Beaver Creek. He was also third in Are in the World Cup finals downhill last March.
Joint winners that day were Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr, who this season took the honours on the leg-jellying Lauberhorn in Wengen, the longest and fastest track on the circuit, and former Olympic downhill champion Matthias Mayer of Austria.
Other names to watch are Italian Dominik Paris, who scorched to a third Kitzbuhel victory on the legendary Hahnekamm course in January, compatriot Christof Innerhofer and Svindal’s team-mate Kjetil Jansrud.
While Vonn will give it her all, and Shiffrin will only race super-G of the speed disciplines, the most likely contenders in the women’s downhill will be defending champion Ilkha Stuhec of Slovenia and World Cup standings leader Nicole Schmidhofer of Austria.
However, Czech phenomenon Ester Ledecka may not be in the form to emulate her Olympic success when she shocked the world by clinching super-G gold followed by gold in snowboarding’s parallel giant slalom.
The 23-year-old has struggled somewhat on skis this season with a best of eighth in a downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
