Mikaela Shiffrin of Team United States competes during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup women's ... More slalom race on March 27, 2025, in Sun Valley. Getty Images Concluding the 2024–25 alpine ski racing season, the Stifel Sun Valley Finals saw the world’s top 25 male and female alpine skiers travel to Idaho for the most important races of the season. Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt and Italy’s Federica Brignone secured the men’s and women’s overall titles, respectively. It’s been 17 years since an American man won the overall title (Bode Miller) and two years since an American woman has (Mikaela Shiffrin). But this year’s finals—held for the first time in the U.S. since 2017 and the first time in Sun Valley since 1977—were bookended by headline-grabbing performances from two American ski racers: Lindsey Vonn and Shiffrin. Vonn, having returned to the sport just this season after retiring five years ago, became, at 40, the oldest woman to make a FIS Alpine World Cup podium when she took second in the super-G on March 23. USA's Lindsey Vonn poses with her second place medal on the podium for the women's super-G event at ... More the Audi FIS Ski World Cup Sun Valley Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho on March 23, 2025. AFP via Getty Images And on March 27, with a dominant win in women’s slalom, Shiffrin capped a season marked by adversity, missing more than two months after suffering a serious abdominal injury that required surgery. MORE FOR YOU NSA Warning—Change Your iPhone And Android Message Settings A Disappointing Update About ‘Solo Leveling’ Season 3 ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3, Episode 7 Recap And Review: I’m Starting To Worry About This Show Both races—and racers—were marquee attractions for the Sun Valley finals, which drew thousands of visitors to Ketchum, a town with a population of just 3,500, and the wider Sun Valley area. ForbesMikaela Shiffrin’s ‘Special’ 101st World Cup Win Comes On U.S. SoilBy Michelle Bruton Though Sun Valley hasn’t hosted the event for nearly half a century, it marked a homecoming for ski racing’s roots. When it opened in 1936 as the brainchild of Union Pacific Railroad chairman Averell Harriman, Sun Valley became America’s first destination ski resort. Most ski areas at that time were serviced by rope tows; in the 1930s, Union Pacific engineer James Curran built the first chairlift at Sun Valley. With the resort’s debut, Harriman also created the Sun Valley Ski Club and its first race: the Sun Valley International Open, later known as the Harriman Cup, which attracted top ski racers from around the world to Sun Valley. The first chairlift debuted at Sun Valley Resort in 1937. Bettmann Archive Nearly 90 years later, Sun Valley once again welcomed the world’s best alpine skiers for the World Cup finals. The event “was the culmination of years of planning, investment, and collaboration between Sun Valley Resort, U.S. Ski & Snowboard and the International Ski Federation [FIS],” said Pete Sonntag, Chief Operating Officer at Sun Valley Company. The process involved significant upgrades to racecourse infrastructure, snowmaking systems and venue logistics to meet the standards of World Cup competition. Upgrades included 34 new snow guns and 10,000 yards of snowmaking pipe, as well as, in 2023, the completion of two new chairlifts from the Warm Springs base area, Challenger and Flying Squirrel, serving the Challenger racecourse venue. The name is a nod to Union Pacific’s railroad challenger cars, known for their speed and power. About 280 total on-hill volunteers, including more than 100 onsite each day, worked to build out and maintain the Challenger course. Even heavy overnight snowfall couldn’t endanger the downhill race on March 22; after working through the night to clear snow and a brief delay the morning of the race, the operations team had the course ready to go. Ultimately, it was high winds, not snowfall, that forced organizers to cancel that race. Off the hill, Sun Valley needed to demonstrate its ability to handle the operational complexities of hosting an international event, from athlete accommodations to spectator experience. In the last 20 years, only four other U.S. resorts—Aspen, Beaver Creek, Killington and Palisades Tahoe—have hosted a World Cup race. All are geographically much closer to major metropolitan areas than Sun Valley. Sun Valley has a small bed base, said Harry Griffith, executive director at Sun Valley Economic Development, with only 7,500 pillows available for transient accommodation (traditional hotels, motels and short-term rentals that have been actively listed over the last 12 months). In addition to spectators, athletes and their teams (coaches, physical therapists, ski technicians) also require housing. Per FIS regulations, World Cup race accommodations must be provided for athletes free of charge. Thus, area hotels must allocate rooms to athlete housing that could have otherwise sold for hundreds a night. Then there’s the matter of getting there. Locals have a saying about Sun Valley: The worst thing about Sun Valley is that it’s hard to get to. And the best thing about Sun Valley…is that it’s hard to get to. But that’s changing. In part to accommodate large events like nationals and World Cup finals, the Fly Sun Valley Alliance has worked to make reaching the resort easier. A decade ago, Friedman Memorial Airport (SUN) had only three nonstop flight destinations (Salt Lake City, Seattle and Los Angeles) and two airlines (Delta and Alaska). Now, with United added to the list of carriers, the airport offers nonstop daily winter flights from six major markets: Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Salt Lake City. Air seat capacity from 2013 to 2023 has almost doubled (up 80%). The 2024 U.S. Alpine National Championships, held in Sun Valley this time last year, was a “crucial test event,” said Sonntag. It allowed the resort to demonstrate it could handle course prep, venue operations and the logistics of hosting a large number of athletes and other support staff in a small town. Crucially, FIS officials were able to assess the resort’s infrastructure, snow conditions and logistical capabilities firsthand. After competing in last year’s nationals in Sun Valley, U.S. ski racer River Radamus “had a sense it was going to be a pretty amazing finals.” “Even for U.S. nationals, the crowds were huge and the community was so engaged and excited to have us,” Radamus, a Colorado native, said. “And we’re seeing the exact same thing this year: crowds are massive, everybody in town just seems thrilled to have the event, so that makes us thrilled to just try to put on a show and try and excite the crowds.” The European skiers were likewise impressed. “It was really nice racing here. I love the atmosphere, I love Sun Valley,” said Sweden’s Sara Hector. “I just get so happy coming to the U.S.,” she added, noting that having been on the World Cup tour since 2009, it’s a “fun adventure” to race somewhere new. “It’s been really cool to come here and it’s really above my expectations,” she said. “Very cool to be here; it was great races for sure,” said Odermatt. “We can do this again.” Crowds during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Men's and Women's Super G on March 23, 2025 in Sun ... More Valley. Getty Images The economic impact figures bear out the anecdotal evidence. Per Griffith, the incremental economic impact of the 2024 U.S. Alpine National Championships was just under $10 million. The estimated economic impact for the World Cup finals is, conservatively, $15 million. That figure is largely driven by spectators. Organizers knew how many to expect in the grandstands, with a daily capacity of 1,150, and in the VIP area, for which 850 tickets were available each day. The non-ticketed general admission spaces outside of those areas, both at the finish line and up on the mountain alongside the course, could accommodate another 3,000 and 500 spectators, respectively. That means a peak viewing audience could reach nearly 6,000 for a given race—and, indeed, the venue was at capacity for the women’s slalom race on Thursday, where Shiffrin took gold. The message from executive leadership, from Sonntag to U.S. Ski & Snowboard president and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt, was clear: Sun Valley hosting the World Cup finals represented a chance for the U.S. to show the world that American resorts can host world-class competition. Sonntag called the event a “milestone.” “It reaffirms the resort’s place among the most prestigious race venues in the world and celebrates its deep history in the sport,” he said. “More broadly, it’s a vital opportunity to grow ski racing in North America by inspiring the next generation of athletes and increasing the sport’s visibility.” When Goldschmidt took over at the helm of U.S. Ski & Snowboard in late 2021, she identified raising the profile of its sports and athletes with more World Cup races on U.S. soil as a key strategy, one that touches many facets of the organization. There’s performance—home-field advantage does make a difference, Goldschmidt said. Then there’s athlete development. “For the next generation to see their superstar heroes live, I’ve heard it from so many of our top athletes; that’s what inspires them to want to get involved and be a World Cup racer,” Goldschmidt said. And then there’s the opportunity for U.S. Ski & Snowboard partners to activate locally and interact with fans, as well as get domestic broadcast exposure. The organization’s commercial program has seen immense success under Goldschmidt, from historic title sponsorship deals for the Stifel U.S. Ski Team and Hydro Flask U.S. Snowboard Team to an expanded broadcast rights deal with NBC Sports. More alpine races held on U.S. soil means more exposure, perhaps planting the seed of a future ski racing career in a young spectator. Shiffrin calls watching Bode Miller race at Birds of Prey in Beaver Creek when she was growing up in Colorado among the “most formative memories” of her life. “It was breathtaking,” Shiffrin said. “It was like, ‘Oh my gosh; this is real, this is here, this is somehow sort of touchable.’” Fans waited in line for a Mikaela Shiffrin autograph signing for more than two hours in downtown ... More Ketchum during the World Cup finals Ray J. Gadd Photography Between now and when the U.S. hosts the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, U.S. alpine skier Lauren Macuga, 22, hopes to see more young American girls get into the speed disciplines (downhill and super-G). “I think it’s so good to show all these kids what we’re doing and get them excited for it,” Macuga said. “Every time I see them, they’re so excited. This is what we want—to get ski racing bigger in America.” The contract Sun Valley signed to host World Cup finals encompasses three years: 2025, 2027 and 2029. However, the future events are not guaranteed; Sun Valley needed to demonstrate to FIS that it was up to the task of handling such a monumental event. By all accounts, it did. And even after Sun Valley had locked down every logistical factor within its control to guarantee a successful World Cup finals—lodging, transportation, infrastructure, staffing—the races themselves are unpredictable. That’s part of the excitement. When Sun Valley organizers began discussing the prospect of hosting a World Cup finals 16 months ago, even they could not have imagined a week of races bookended by Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin podiums. Sun Valley is poised to build on this momentum. “The resort’s successful execution of such a prestigious event strengthens its position as a premier destination for future international and national races,” said Sonntag. “Additionally, the event will leave a lasting legacy by inspiring young ski racers and further embedding race culture into the fabric of the Sun Valley community.” Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Editorial StandardsForbes Accolades