Mikaela Shiffrin, Lindsey Vonn, and Marco Odermatt make it a star-studded World Alpine Skiing Championship

The World Alpine Skiing Championships will take place over the next two weeks, featuring two of the most successful women in World Cup history, as well as a man who, if he isn’t already, could join the ranks of the all-time greats.

The competition begins Tuesday with a mixed-gender team parallel event (9:15 a.m. ET, Peacock).

Then, from Thursday to Sunday, speed races in downhill and super-G take place in Saalbach, Austria. Lindsey Vonn will compete in the world championships for the first time since 2019, when she won downhill bronze at the age of 34 (the oldest individual female medallist in history) in what she thought would be her final race.

Vonn retired from skiing after an 18-year career of crashes and injuries, including multiple surgeries on her right knee.

Vonn has undergone additional knee operations since retiring, including a game-changing partial right knee replacement surgery in April.

“All the things that had been bothering me for so many years were suddenly gone,” she explained in December. “I thought, OK, well, if I feel this good playing tennis and doing all the things I love, what about skiing?”

She tested the knee, which is now partially titanium, on the slopes. It went well, and the comeback was on, with the goal of making a fifth Olympic team and retiring permanently after the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.

“To be able to ski without pain, it’s a completely new world for me,” she said before her first World Cup race on December 21. “I haven’t felt this good in 15 years.”

Vonn’s best finishes in seven World Cup starts this winter have been fourth in super-G and sixth in downhill, putting her on track to make the Olympic team next winter. At 40, she is the oldest woman (in years) to finish in the top 30 of a World Cup race.

“Some amazing races and some mistakes were made, but overall I’m extremely happy with my skiing,” she wrote following her most recent World Cup. “This journey is moving faster than I anticipated, but I still need to be patient. “One step at a time.”

In the second week, Vonn and the speed racers make way for the technical skiers in giant slalom and slalom. Mikaela Shiffrin has the most women’s World Cup victories across both disciplines.

Shiffrin is recovering from a November 30 giant slalom race crash that resulted in torn oblique muscles. She returned to the World Cup last Thursday, though not at full strength, and finished 10th in the slalom.

“The next 10 days will be a bit challenging to fit everything in (training) with giant slalom skiing and with slalom skiing to get the variety of conditions that I really need to be on the top level,” she told me following the race. “I might not get there before world championships, but for sure I believe I can get there before the end of the season, so that’s the goal.”

Shiffrin is already the most successful skier in modern world championship history, having won seven gold medals (tied for the most since World War II) and 14 total medals (the most since World War II outright) in 17 individual race starts dating back to 2013.

Swiss Marco Odermatt could appear in both weeks of Worlds. He won the men’s World Cup season standings in the downhill, super-G, and giant slalom last year (as well as overall), and he’s doing it again this year.

The 27-year-old athlete won the 2022 Olympic giant slalom, downhill and giant slalom at the 2023 World Championships, and has appeared in commercials alongside Roger Federer. He has the opportunity to become the fourth man to win world titles in downhill, super-G, and giant slalom.