The Greatest Alpine Skiers of All Time

Ranker Sports
Updated August 15, 2023 30.6K votes 10.2K voters 63.4K views
Over 10.2K Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Greatest Alpine Skiers of All Time
Voting Rules
Any athletes to compete in alpine skiing, active or inactive, living or dead.

A list of the greatest alpine skiers of all time, ranked by standings and the amount of medals received. Alpine skiing is a popular winter sport that involves sliding down a snow-covered hill at fast speeds; it is also called “downhill skiing." It is the most popular in countries like Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand because of the ideal weather conditions. These are the most famous and best alpine skiers in the world, including Olympic champions and winners of other contests in which alpine skiers participate.

Most divisive: Janica Kostelić
Ranked by
  • Ingemar Stenmark
    1

    Ingemar Stenmark

    Age: 67
    1,538 votes
    • Nationality: Sweden
    • Birthplace: Joesjö, Sweden
    Jan Ingemar Stenmark (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈɪŋː(ɛ)mar ²steːnmark]; born 18 March 1956 in Joesjö, Sweden) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Sweden. He is regarded as one of the most prominent Swedish athletes ever, and as the greatest slalom and giant slalom specialist of all time. He competed for Fjällvinden Tärnaby.
  • Marcel Hirscher
    2

    Marcel Hirscher

    Age: 34
    1,303 votes
    • Nationality: Austria
    • Birthplace: Annaberg-Lungötz, Austria
    Marcel Hirscher (born 2 March 1989) is an Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer. Hirscher made his World Cup debut in March 2007. He competes primarily in slalom and giant slalom, as well as combined and occasionally in super G. Winner of a record eight consecutive World Cup titles, Hirscher has also won 11 medals at the Alpine Skiing World Championships, seven of them gold, a silver medal in slalom at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and two gold medals in the combined and giant slalom at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Due to his record number of overall titles, many years of extreme dominance of both slalom and giant slalom and of the men's overall ranking, he is considered by many, including his rivals Henrik Kristoffersen, Kjetil Jansrud and Alexis Pinturault, to be the best alpine skier in history.
  • Mikaela Shiffrin
    3

    Mikaela Shiffrin

    Age: 28
    1,052 votes
    • Nationality: United States of America
    • Birthplace: Vail, Colorado
    Mikaela Pauline Shiffrin is an American World Cup alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team, specializing in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom. She is the reigning Olympic, World Cup, and world champion in slalom. Shiffrin is the youngest slalom champion in Olympic alpine skiing history, at 18 years and 345 days.
  • Lindsey Vonn
    4

    Lindsey Vonn

    Age: 38
    1,066 votes
    • Nationality: United States of America
    • Birthplace: Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA
    Lindsey Caroline Vonn (née Kildow ; born October 18, 1984) is an American former World Cup alpine ski racer on the US Ski Team. She won four World Cup overall championships—one of only two female skiers to do so, along with Annemarie Moser-Pröll—with three consecutive titles in 2008, 2009, and 2010, plus another in 2012. Vonn won the gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the first one for an American woman. She also won a record 8 World Cup season titles in the downhill discipline (2008–2013, 2015, 2016), 5 titles in super-G (2009–2012, 2015), and 3 consecutive titles in the combined (2010–2012). In 2016, she won her 20th World Cup crystal globe title, the overall record for men or women, surpassing Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden, who won 19 globes from 1975 to 1984. She has the second highest super ranking of all skiers, men or women. Vonn is one of 6 women to have won World Cup races in all five disciplines of alpine skiing—downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and super combined—and won 82 World Cup races in her career through February 3, 2018. Her total of 82 World Cup victories is a women's record, surpassing Annemarie Moser-Pröll of Austria who had held the record since the 1970s. Only Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden with 86 World Cup victories has more. With her Olympic gold and bronze medals, 2 World Championship gold medals in 2009 (plus three silver medals in 2007 and 2011), and 4 overall World Cup titles, Vonn is the most successful American ski racer and considered one of the greatest of all skiers.In 2010, Vonn received the Laureus Sportswoman of the Year award and was the United States Olympic Committee's sportswoman of the year.Injuries caused Vonn to miss parts of several seasons, including almost all of the 2014 season and most of the 2013 season. While recovering from injury, she worked as a correspondent for NBC News covering the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. However in 2019, she announced her retirement, citing her injuries.
  • Hermann Maier
    5

    Hermann Maier

    Age: 50
    836 votes
    • Nationality: Austria
    • Birthplace: Altenmarkt im Pongau, Austria
    Hermann Maier (born 7 December 1972) is an Austrian former World Cup champion alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. Nicknamed the "Herminator", Maier ranks among the greatest alpine ski racers in history, with four overall World Cup titles (1998, 2000, 2001, 2004), two Olympic gold medals (both in 1998), and three World Championship titles (1999: 2, and 2005). His 54 World Cup race victories – 24 super-G, 15 downhills, 14 giant slaloms, and 1 combined – rank third on the men's all-time list behind Ingemar Stenmark's 86 victories and Marcel Hirscher's 68 victories. As of 2013, he holds the record for the most points in one season by a male alpine skier, with 2000 points from the 2000 season. From 2000–2013 he also held the title of most points in one season by any alpine skier, until Tina Maze scored 2414 points in the 2013 season.
  • Aksel Lund Svindal
    6

    Aksel Lund Svindal

    Age: 40
    661 votes
    • Nationality: Norway
    • Birthplace: Lørenskog, Norway
    Aksel Lund Svindal (born 26 December 1982) is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer. Born in Lørenskog in Akershus county, Svindal is a two-time overall World Cup champion (2007 and 2009), an Olympic gold medalist in super-G at the 2010 Winter Olympics and in downhill at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and a five-time World Champion in downhill, giant slalom, and super combined (2007 Åre, 2009 Val-d'Isère, 2011 Garmisch, and 2013 Schladming). With his victory in the downhill in 2013, Svindal became the first male alpine racer to win titles in four consecutive world championships.With his successes many consider him the best Norwegian alpine skier ever. While the great Kjetil Andre Aamodt has been more successful at the Olympics, Svindal is by far the most successful on the World Cup circuit. In late-January 2019, he announced his retirement from alpine skiing following the 2019 Ski World Championships.