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The 2025 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships opened in Saalbach, Austria, this week, with the team parallel race on Tuesday and the speed races starting on Thursday with women’s super-G. It’s the first time in a dozen years that ski-crazed Austria has hosted an alpine world championship, and the atmosphere is electric.
“It feels like prep for the Olympics,” noted Breezy Johnson, who is making her fourth appearance at a world championship.
Incidentally, the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games open a year from Thursday, February 6.
The skiers are not yet looking that far ahead to race day—because, as Lauren Macuga says, at world championships, “it’s all about the medals.” Placing and points (toward world ranking) don’t matter.
“I have expectations, of course,” added “Cougs,” who won her first World Cup race in January and, at age 22, is competing in her first senior world championship. “I know I can do it again. I just have to have that perfect run again. I know what I have to do. I just have to do it.”
The U.S. team hopes to add to the 95 world championship medals won by Americans in alpine skiing over the past 94 years. And with three different skiers making the World Cup podium so far this year—Macuga, Ryan Cochran-Siegle, and Jared Goldberg—and four others scoring top 10 finishes, the team is deep, with just about any one able to step up.
“It’s such a strong team,” said Macuga, the 2022 junior worlds downhill bronze medalist. “Anyone could get in there. It’s amazing to have this atmosphere, in the hotel and up on the hill during inspection where we’re all just trying to help each other succeed.”
Lindsey Vonn’s Comeback: Can She Add to Her World Championship Legacy?
Lindsey Vonn will be competing in her ninth world championship in Saalbach. While the 40-year-old former world downhill champion has yet to find the podium in World Cups, it is likely just a matter of time.
More immediate is her impact on the U.S. women’s speed team.
“When we heard the news she was coming back, I thought, ‘Wow, that’s crazy,’” said Jacqueline Wiles, who considered Vonn a mentor when they were on the U.S. team together from 2013 to Vonn’s initial retirement in 2019. “But then she folded in very quickly and was already back up to speed, wanting to be a super supportive teammate.
“Just having her aura and who she is, giving us feedback is really cool. It’s super inspirational for all of us just to have her around. She has so many years of experience on each track, so she’s always giving good feedback. And it’s really cool for the younger skiers who haven’t skied with her at all.”
Macuga is one of the younger skiers who made the U.S. Ski Team the year Vonn retired. Now, she is reveling in having her idol on the team.
“She didn’t have to help us, but she does,” Macuga told Olympics.com earlier this winter. “In training, I ask her questions, and she gives really great advice.”
“Even in St. Anton for the downhill, I was next on inspection,” added Macuga. “I came up and just said, ‘I don’t know how to do this!’ And, I mean, she immediately replied, ‘All right, this is how you do it. This is what I think through here.’
“She’s obviously the best, and she knows what she’s doing. Having her athlete’s perspective on these inspection runs or her approach to ski racing was huge. It gave me a completely different outlook. And I mean, she really gave me an honest answer. I think it really helps to have her around.”
Will Vonn add to her collection of eight world championship medals this week? Vonn is quick to warn her fans that it’s a long road back.
“It’s been 2,187 days since I raced in a world championships,” she posted on Instagram. “But tomorrow I’m back!!🙌🏻… something I never thought I would be able to do. I feel lucky to get this opportunity but also thankful that I was able to earn my way here with a body that is finally working again!
“This journey hasn’t been an easy one but it has given me a lot of joy. I’ve lived an incredible life since I retired in 2019 and I miss that life, my dogs and my family. But this adventure is short and one that I will not waste. I know I still have the ability to succeed in this sport but will all the pieces of the puzzle fit together tomorrow? I don’t know. What I do know is this; I will give it my all, I will not take it for granted and I will have fun!
“…And if everything doesn’t fit together tomorrow, that’s ok too. I still have 368 days to figure it out.”
Of note, Vonn comes to races with a bad cold or the flu.
Team USA’s Medal Hunt: Top Contenders and Rising Stars
The men on the U.S. speed team started the 2024/2025 season strong, with Cochran-Siegle and Goldberg stepping onto the podium at the Val Gardena World Cup. Bryce Bennett has also flirted with the podium this season, finishing as high as sixth twice.
Goldberg credited the team’s work last summer on the technical fundamentals — i.e., making lots of turns.
“It’s felt noticeable in my skiing, like being over my skis better than before,” he says. “ I feel like I’m in a better place technically, which is important here because it’s pretty ‘GS-y’ on the top part [of the downhill].”
While competing at his first world championships, Sam Morse agrees: “This track suits us.”
U.S. Men’s Speed Team: Can They Rebound from Kitzbühel?
The men hope to recover from disappointment at Kitzbühel two weeks ago — considered the Super Bowl of ski racing. Cochran-Siegle, in 19th, was the best finisher for the U.S. in the Hahnenkamm.
“We had higher expectations, and we just didn’t execute,” says Bennett. “At this level, downhill has progressed to where you mess up once or twice, and it really reflects in your time and your feeling of belonging on the hill.”
The team has used their strong bond to recover. Unlike European racers, they do not go home on the weekends, and after bad weekends, they have to console each other.
“You don’t get to go home and hang out with your wife and your dog and family,” he said. “You get to hang out with your boys and a suitcase in another hotel in Europe.
“That’s a dynamic that gets overlooked,” he continued. “We go through highs and lows. But at the moment, I think we’re trending back up.”
Helping the trend, Cochran-Siegle won the final downhill training run at Saalbach on Wednesday.
New Team Combined Event Debuts at 2025 World Championships
A few years ago, FIS discontinued the traditional combined race—a run of downhill followed by a run of slalom. This year, the team combined debuts at world championships. In this event, one teammate competes in downhill in the morning, then another races slalom in the afternoon.
Teams will be determined after the downhills this weekend. The women compete in team combined on Tuesday, February 11 followed by the men on February 12.
“It’s a really cool that we get to pair up with the tech team, we’ve never done that,” said Wiles. “It’s this team camaraderie, bringing both sides together to try to unite as one. We’re really looking forward to this event.”
“It’s really cool because we often never see [the tech team], we are literally in different places, so we can basically only text them,” added Johnson. “It’s fun having a bigger girls group and having such a strong group that you can build off of all the time.”
Macuga has participated in a combined team at the 2023 junior world championships, finishing fourth.
“It’s such a unique opportunity,” she says. “You’re watching someone race your second run. It’s a different kind of nerves watching someone who’s about to directly affect your day.”
When asked how the pressure of a team event might differ from that of a regular downhill, Cochran-Siegle initially did not think it would matter.
“Every race is a high pressure situation, going out of the start, just trying to ski my best, trying to ski with intensity,” he said. “I don’t know how I’ll feel, but maybe I’ll feel a little extra motivation knowing that someone else is counting on me.”
How to Watch the 2025 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Live
Peacock and skiandsnowboard.live are broadcasting the races live, with the latter providing on-demand coverage.
*Note: skiandsnowboard.live requires an extra $29.99 subscription beyond the regular “all access” pass.
NBC will also broadcast tape-delayed coverage on the weekends (Feb 8 & 9 and Feb 15 & 16).
For a complete list of races, dates, times, and broadcast schedules, click here.