The FIS Council met in Geneva on October 1. It dropped the idea of a World Championships in 2028 and set Marcel Hirscher’s start position. It also faced up to a sharp fall in its reserves. On the snow, Austria’s Maja Waroschitz has lost her season before it began.

Athletes

Marcel Hirscher: wild card confirmed, with bib 31

The status of Marcel HirscherNED is now settled. On October 1, the FIS Council approved the conditions for wild card holders for the 2027 season. For Hirscher, that means bib 31, right after the top 30, according to FIS. The Dutch federation had also floated a start after the top 40. That option was not chosen.

Hirscher, 37, holds dual nationality through his Dutch mother. He has raced for the Netherlands since 2024. He has been training giant slalom on snow since September. No start in Sölden on October 25 has been announced.

Maja Waroschitz: a second ACL tear in ten months

Austria’s Maja WaroschitzAUT, 20, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee during giant slalom training in Chile. Her meniscus is also damaged. Austria’s federation, quoted by ORF, described an unspectacular fall. She has had surgery in Austria and will miss the 2027 season.

The two-time Youth Olympic champion was coming back from a similar injury. In December 2025, a European Cup crash had cost her the ACL, the medial collateral ligament and the lateral meniscus.

Venues and calendar

No World Championships in 2028

FIS had been studying an extra World Championships in even, non-Olympic years. The Council ruled out a 2028 edition as not feasible in time. It will keep exploring a major global event in that slot from 2032, FIS said.

Swiss racers had spoken out the day before, on September 30, at Swiss-Ski’s media day. Franjo von AllmenSUI, triple Olympic champion in Milan-Cortina, called the idea “crap.” Marco OdermattSUI would rather use those two weeks for new venues, in Asia for example. Corinne Suter and Thomas Tumler fear the Worlds would lose prestige (SRF).

Glacier du Rettenbach - Sölden (AUT)© Krzysztof Nahlik Alamy
The Rettenbach glacier in Sölden, where the season opens on October 24–25.

Sölden wants four races from autumn 2027

The season opener could grow. Jack Falkner, head of Sölden’s lift company, wants to add two super-Gs, women’s and men’s, to the two giant slaloms. The target is the 2028 season, which opens in autumn 2027. He says Vincent KriechmayrAUT assured him a super-G was possible on the Rettenbach. Talks with the Austrian federation and FIS are ongoing. Nothing has been decided (Kurier, via Laola1).

Every date of the 2027 season, women and men. Open the calendar