Austria's Manuel Feller delighted the home crowd by winning the World Cup slalom in Kitzbuehel on January 25, 2026, marking his first victory on the iconic slope. Starting fourth after the opening run, Feller delivered a strong second run to finish ahead of Loic Meillard and Linus Strasser. The win comes after a challenging season for Feller, who has battled back pain and near-retirement thoughts.
In the men's slalom at the Hahnenkamm event in Kitzbuehel, Austria, Manuel Feller of Austria secured his maiden World Cup win on the famous piste with a total time of 1:40.60. Feller, skiing for Atomic, was fourth fastest in the first run but posted a blistering second run to overtake early leader Linus Strasser of Germany. Loic Meillard of Switzerland, who led after the first run by nearly half a second, finished second at +0.35 seconds, while Strasser took third at +0.53 seconds.
This victory marked the first time an Austrian has won the Kitzbuehel slalom since Marcel Hirscher in 2017 and the first Austrian World Cup win of any kind there since Vincent Kriechmayr's downhill triumph in 2023. For Feller, a local who lives near the slope, it fulfilled a childhood dream amid a tough season start with only one top-10 finish. He has struggled with back pain since becoming the 2023-24 slalom champion, his last win coming in Palisades Tahoe in March 2024.
"Unbelievable. I can't find any words for this, I'm just so emotional," Feller said after kneeling in the finish area and watching the final skiers fail to catch him. "So good for me after such a horrible start to the season. Also privately a really tough period of my life. I just kept on fighting."
Strasser, winner of the 2024 Kitzbuehel slalom, earned his first podium in nearly two years. "I knew what the problem was; I didn't have the balls to go in that last click," he said of overcoming recent struggles. Meillard, seeking his first slalom win this season after two podiums, noted, "Manu was better than me today... it's a first podium in Kitzbuehel so I can be happy."
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen of Brazil finished fourth, just 0.04 seconds behind Strasser, securing the slalom standings lead after Atle Lie McGrath of Norway did not finish the first run. McGrath, who had led the discipline, said, "I'm obviously very disappointed and it hurts a lot." The result followed a poor Austrian performance in the preceding downhill, where Kriechmayr placed 13th in the team's worst showing ever.
The next slalom is a night race in Schladming on Wednesday, the last before the Milan Cortina Olympics.
