After Solden: Who Is Fit for Levi, Who Returns in December and the Next World Cup Dates

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Quick Answer

The 2026-27 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup started in Solden on 24 and 25 October, and it does not race again until Levi, Finland, on 14 and 15 November. That three week gap is normal for this calendar, and it is also useful, because it gives injured skiers time and gives fans time to work out who is actually fit. Paula Moltzan won the women's giant slalom in Solden, her first World Cup win, beating Lara Colturi by 0.01 seconds. Lucas Pinheiro Braathen won the men's giant slalom, beating Loic Meillard by 0.48 seconds and Marco Odermatt by 0.49 seconds. Both winners lead their overall standings after one race, with 100 points each, under standard World Cup points where a win is worth 100, second is 80, third is 60, fourth is 50, fifth is 45, sixth is 40 and seventh is 36.

The bigger story in the gap is fitness. Federica Brignone, the double Olympic champion from Cortina, targets a mid December return after another leg surgery in August. Sofia Goggia, the four time World Cup downhill champion and reigning super-G champion, has no confirmed return date as she recovers from viral illness. Aleksander Kilde is out long term after an Achilles tendon rupture shortly before the season started. Michelle Gisin missed Solden with an uncertain timeline. Marcel Hirscher's comeback continues, but Solden arrived too early for the eight time overall champion. Cyprien Sarrazin aims for a potential return at the North American speed opener, nearly two years after his heavy crash in Bormio.

What did Solden actually tell us?

Solden told us that the women's giant slalom is wide open, and the men's giant slalom is a three way fight. Moltzan, 32, won from fifth after Run 1, in her first World Cup win after 10 second or third place finishes, a decade after she was dropped from the US Ski Team, and after changing to Van Deer skis. She said afterwards: "It feels like a fairytale right now, pretty unreal." Colturi was second, Emma Aicher third, and Mikaela Shiffrin seventh, after leading Run 1 with a time of 1:07.27, then posting only the 27th fastest Run 2. Shiffrin has 110 World Cup wins and is chasing her 111th, but Solden showed that her giant slalom form is still a work in progress in this exploration season, where she is focusing on giant slalom and super-G and skipping the early slaloms.

In the men's race, Braathen won in 1:44.72 combined, after leading Run 1 in 52.40 on a wind shortened course with a reserve lower start. Meillard was second, Odermatt third despite the fastest Run 2, after being 0.55 seconds down after Run 1. River Radamus was fourth, from 15th after Run 1, and that was a career best kind of performance for the American. Odermatt is chasing a sixth straight overall title, which would make him only the second man after Marcel Hirscher, with eight, to win six overall titles. Braathen won last season's giant slalom globe from Odermatt, and Solden suggests that rivalry will run all season.

The standings after one race are simple, but they are also misleading if you read too much into them. One race does not make a season. What matters is who is fit to race the next three weekends, and who is not.

Who is fit for Levi, and who is not?

Levi hosts the women's slalom on Saturday 14 November and the men's slalom on Sunday 15 November, on the Levi Black piste. Braathen won last season's Levi slalom, so he arrives as defending winner in that discipline, not just as Solden winner. Shiffrin will skip Levi, and Gurgl, as part of her exploration season, with her first slalom planned for Killington on 29 November. That means the women's slalom in Levi will be won by someone else, and the favourite conversation starts with the slalom specialists, not with Shiffrin.

Here is the fitness picture as reported in the week of Solden, with the caveat that return dates in skiing are always conditional on snow training, not just on a calendar date.

Brignone's case deserves detail, because it is easy to get wrong. She broke her left leg in April 2025, with multiple fractures and a torn ACL, had surgeries in April and July 2025, returned to skiing in November 2025 and to World Cup racing two weeks before the Olympics, then won super-G and giant slalom gold on home snow in Cortina in February 2026, at age 35, becoming the oldest Alpine skier to win Olympic gold. She did that while still in pain. In August 2026 she had another surgery to remove fixation devices, a plate and screws, from the previous surgery. She told Gazzetta dello Sport, in translation carried by NBC Sports: "I will definitely miss the debut in Solden at the end of October and the North American trip in late November and early December. Right now, I am focused on getting better. I cannot put on my skis yet, but when I can, I will gladly do so."

Goggia's case is different, and harder to predict. She is not recovering from a broken bone, with a biological healing time. She is recovering from viral infections that left her tired, weak, and struggling with stairs and coordination, in her own words to AP. She said: "I only started training last week because the two weeks before I was back and forth to hospital and I was really tired, weak and still had strong symptoms. So they told me to rest more." Her goal, she said, is to get back to being clear headed, coordinated and mentally present, with her neurological system fully back to normal. That is why no date can be given with confidence, and why any article that gives her a fixed return date should be treated with scepticism.

Kilde's Achilles rupture is the most serious injury on the men's side. An Achilles rupture in a speed skier is a long term injury, measured in months, not weeks, and no return date has been given. Sarrazin's return, if it happens at the North American speed opener, would be a remarkable comeback nearly two years after his Bormio crash, and it would be a story in itself.

What is the early season calendar?

The FIS confirmed calendar has 43 men's races across 21 venues and 40 women's races across 20 resorts, concluding in Sun Valley, Idaho, from 20 to 25 March. The early season is split: technical races in Europe, then a North American block, then speed races in December. Here are the dates that matter for the next six weeks.

Plancker, named FIS chief race director for men's Alpine World Cup on 26 October, succeeding Markus Waldner, will take over on 1 November, with his first official assignment in Levi on 15 November. That leadership change, at the start of the season, is another reason Levi will be watched closely, not just for results but for how the men's tour is run.

How to watch Levi and Gurgl

Broadcast details for Levi and Gurgl are confirmed by organisers in the run up to each weekend, so check the official FIS and Levi and Gurgl sites before travelling. In the United States, NBC Sports and Peacock carry the World Cup under the expanded partnership with US Ski and Snowboard and FIS through 2030, with commentary from Steve Schlanger and Steve Porino for Solden. In the UK, TNT Sports on HBO Max carried Solden, and is the UK home for the season. In continental Europe, rights vary by country, and the FIS Watch platform and national broadcasters carry races live. For Levi, the usual pattern is a first run in the morning local time and a second run in the early afternoon, with US coverage in the early morning Eastern Time, similar to Solden's 04:00 and 07:00 Eastern pattern for Run 1 and Run 2 on Saturday, and 05:00 and 08:00 Eastern on Sunday after Europe's clock change. Exact Levi start times will be confirmed closer to the race, and this article will not invent them before the organisers publish them.

For fans planning to attend Levi in person, the Levi Black piste is a compact, spectator friendly venue, and the slalom is a night race atmosphere in November darkness, which is very different from Solden's glacier in October. Gurgl, on the Kirchenkar piste in Hochgurgl, finishes 320 metres above the Top Mountain Crosspoint, with evening events at the Gurgl Carat Congress and Events Centre in Obergurgl. Both are worth the trip, but Levi is the one to watch first, because it is where Braathen defends a slalom win and where the men's tour gets a new chief race director.

What to watch for in the gap?

Watch training reports from Copper Mountain, where Brignone and Goggia are aiming to train, and from Levi itself, where teams arrive early for snow training. Watch whether Shiffrin posts giant slalom training times that suggest Solden's second run was a blip, not a trend. Watch whether Odermatt, who was fastest in Run 2 in Solden, carries that speed into Levi's slalom, a discipline where he is less dominant than in giant slalom. And watch the overall standings after Levi: if Moltzan and Braathen both score again, the early season leaders become genuine title contenders, not just opening weekend winners.

Solden gave us two first time stories: Moltzan's first win at 32, and Braathen's first win of the season as defending giant slalom globe winner. Levi will tell us whether those stories continue, or whether the season's real favourites take over.

Sources: FIS official calendar and press release on Plancker, 26 October 2026, carried by Ski Racing; NBC Sports on Brignone, 7 October 2026; AP reporting on Brignone and Goggia, October 2026; FIS and Solden official results for Solden giant slaloms; FIS World Cup points system.

Internal links: Skiing category hub on ofthepitch.com; After Solden: Levi Is Next, Shiffrin Skips Slalom, and a New Man Takes Charge of the Mens World Cup; Braathen Beats Odermatt in Solden Final: Full Results, Standings and What Comes Next in Levi