Lauberhorn ski races


The Lauberhorn ski races are among the highest-attended winter sports events in the world, attracting around 30,000 spectators each year. An established attraction is the airshow by the Patrouille Suisse, the aerobatic demonstration team of the Swiss Air Force. The 2016 races were held 15–17 January.
The races in Wengen in the Bernese Oberland are held in mid-January, usually the week prior to the Hahnenkamm, in Kitzbühel, Austria, another classic downhill race run since the early 1930s.
The Lauberhorn is a mountain in the Bernese Alps of Switzerland, located between Wengen and Grindelwald, north of the Kleine Scheidegg. Its summit is at an elevation of above sea level.
The downhill course is the longest in the world; its length of over results in run times of two and a half minutes ; top speeds approach on its Haneggschuss, the highest speeds on the World Cup circuit.
The Lauberhorn downhill run is surrounded by the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau above the Lauterbrunnen valley. It is known for run arrangements such as the Hundschopf, a signature jump over a rock nose, the Kernen-S.
Races are held on two famous courses "Lauberhorn" and "Männlichen / Jungfrau".
WWW lauberhorn.ch

Key sections

Many of the named portions of the course are due to historic falls or crashes by racers. The best known sections of the Lauberhorn downhill, or Lauberhornrennen, race are the following :Russisprung, named after Swiss Olympic champion Bernhard Russi, in the upper treeless part of the courseHundschopf, the Lauberhorn's signature jump over the rock nose, about a third of the way down the courseMinsch-Kante Canadian Corner, a long fall-away right turnAlpweg trail, very narrow and only in widthKernen-S, which reduces speed considerably; exit speed very important as the slower Langentrejen flats are next.Wasserstation, a small tunnel underpassing the local railroad WengernalpbahnLangentrejen where the slope becomes significantly flatter, now ends with Super-G turnsHaneggschuss, a pitch after the flats where top speeds approach Silberhornsprung Österreicherloch Ziel-S which is endurance challenging and finally a finish jump

History

One of the first reports of skiing from the Lauberhorn to Wengen was in 1912 when the Roberts of Candahar Ski Challenge Cup was offered. By 1927 it was just known as the Lauberhorn Ski Cup.
It is one of the oldest continuously-held ski races. The Russisprung was originally built in the spring for a television show and was incorporated into the course by organizers the following year. The Minsch-Kante is where Josef Minsch fell in 1965 and was hospitalized for weeks. The Canadian Corner is named after two of the Crazy Canucks, Dave Irwin and Ken Read, who aggressively attacked this part of the course in 1976 and subsequently fell during the race. The Kernen-S was renamed for 2003 winner Bruno Kernen after his crash in 1997 at the former Brüggli-S. The Silberhornsprung was introduced in 2003 with the pyramid-shaped Silberhorn mountain in the background for television viewers. The Österreicherloch got its name in 1954 when almost all participating Austrian skiers fell there; 1960s Austrian great Karl Schranz later fell there as well.
In 1991, a tragic death occurred during training for the race at the Ziel-S. The young Austrian skier Gernot Reinstadler was not able to finish the S-curve properly and therefore jumped into the slope boundary, where he hooked one ski in the security net and suffered severe injuries to the lower body. He died shortly after the accident from internal bleeding. The race was not held that year. In reaction to this tragic event, the slope boundary at that place was also equipped with rejection canvas and the gates were moved upwards and more to the left.
Snowmaking was added in the mid-1990s, and the combined race has been a run as a "super combined" since the World Cup debut of the format at Wengen in 2005. The super-combi consists of a shortened downhill and with a slalom run, both on the same day, instead of three runs of the traditional combined. On the World Cup circuit, the traditional combined is usually not run as separate races, but determined "on paper" from the results of the primary downhill and slalom races, which are run on separate days. At the Winter Olympics, the super-combined format replaced the traditional combined at the 2010 Winter Games.

Facts and figures

  • Longest downhill race in the World Cup circuit, with a length of in 2019;
typical World Cup downhill courses for men are or less.
it descends to the finish at in Wengen.
  • The course record of 2:22.58 was set by Marco Odermatt of Switzerland in 2025, with an average speed of, an average vertical descent rate of.
  • Top speeds can exceed on the Haneggschuss, a straightaway 25–30 seconds from the finish. The highest speed ever measured in a World Cup race was reached at this section in 2013 by Johan Clarey of France at. Top speeds vary from year to year, depending upon snow conditions.
  • The average grade of the downhill race course is 25.3 percent.
  • The maximum grade is 87 percent at the Hundschopf jump, one-third of the way down the course.
  • The largest crowd was recorded in 2012, when 38,000 observed the Lauberhorn downhill race.
  • of security nets are set up at the border of the downhill run, surrounded by around of high security nets and of rejection canvas.
  • The course was one of several featured in the 1969 movie Downhill Racer, starring Robert Redford and Gene Hackman.
Redford's character challenges his rival teammate to a dual race at the end of practice on the Lauberhorn downhill course.

Winners list

YearDownhillSlalomCombinedSuper-G
2026