The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup returns to Semmering, Austria for the first time this season for a pair of women’s races: a giant slalom on Saturday followed by a slalom on Sunday. 

105-time World Cup winner (yes, you read that correctly) Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), rising superstar Alice Robinson (NZL) and steady top-10 finisher Paula Moltzan (USA) are expected to compete. The events will air live on Peacock.

With the one-month countdown to Milan Cortina nigh, here are a handful of storylines — a holiday gift for you and your loved ones — that help take stock of where the top athletes stand. 

Is a slalom sweep really in the cards for Shiffrin?

It feels ridiculous saying Shiffrin is on “history watch” because inherently that’s the case every time she leaves a starting gate. The 30-year-old never is not a threat to add to her all-time leading Cup win (105) and podium (161) records, so what could possibly make this Shiffrin season different from all other Shiffrin seasons? 

A clean sweep.

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Vreni Schneider (SUI) is the only athlete, man or woman, to win every slalom race in a single Cup campaign — a feat she accomplished in 1988-89 when there were only five of them. If Shiffrin emerges victorious on Sunday, she’ll go five-for-five in the discipline. To be perfect, she’ll need to go 10-for-10 by season’s end. 

The margin for error is razor-thin. Not to mention, there are so many factors out of her control, such as injury, snow conditions, visibility, an opponent throwing down a once-in-a-lifetime performance, working against her.

Maybe this countdown is starting too early. Maybe. Before leaping to any conclusions, consider the following about Shiffrin:

• During the 2018-19 season, she came ridiculously close to the accomplishment, winning 8-out-of-9 slalom events
• In slalom races this season, her average margin of victory is a hair over 1.50 seconds. Usually, that type of time difference separates the first-place finisher from the 10th-place finisher.
• She’s the record-breaker in Alpine skiing. The Mother of Slalom. The Princess of the Podium. The Gate Whisperer. The Khaleesi of the Piste who, like Daenerys Targaryen, possesses an otherworldly magic in her pursuits. 

Even Shiffrin herself can’t quite find the words to explain her recent success:

“I have such quality skiing,” she said after her win in Courcheval, France. “I don't know what's working and, like, tonight, I just don't ask questions. Just take it and, like, roll with it. Ride the wave.”

The season sweep milestone may wash up on the shores of history before we know it. With seven Cup victories in Semmering, she’s primed to keep the momentum going.

Who’s better: U.S. women’s speed team or U.S. women’s tech team?

Now that at least five speed (super-G, downhill) and five technical (slalom, giant slalom) World Cup races are in the books this season, there’s enough of a sample size to answer a question like this.

An argument can be made that Shiffrin is so superb thus far — four wins, two wooden spoons, 558 Cup points to lead all women, a reindeer named Winkie and a partridge in a pear tree — that the edge automatically goes to the tech team. Moltzan also is in top form, perhaps the best she's been. She’s as close to a top-10 lock as one can find on race day.

Nina O’Brien (USA) has either been great or a non-factor, posting three top-11 finishes and also three DNFs and a DNQ, while injuries to Katie Hensien (USA) and AJ Hurt (USA) have left the squad a little thin. 

Largely, the tech team is living up to its expectations. 

On the speed side, there were a lot more question marks heading into the season. Will Lindsey Vonn (USA) reach the peak of her pre-retirement powers? Is Breezy Johnson (USA) ready to take a leap? Can the Americans find enough Cup points to make up for the loss of Lauren Macuga (USA)?

The answer to at least two of those three inquiries is a resounding yes. Vonn seemingly has jumped into a DeLorean or a hot tub time machine (reader's choice) and gone back to 2010, ripping off a first, second, two thirds and a fourth.

Breezy has a nagging back injury though four top-10 finishes. Most impressively, the speed team as a whole, has placed five racers in the top-30 four times in five events. That’s not just consistency, it’s consistent dominance.

Right now, it feels like the speed team has the mantle, but Shiffrin, Moltzan and O’Brien very well may snatch it back this weekend.

Does Alice Robinson have your attention now?

It’s not easy for a skier to fly (carve?) under the radar when they make the podium as often as Robinson does, but the superstardom of Vonn and Shiffrin shines so brightly that it can blind some to the rest of the field. Put on these metaphorical sunglasses to properly appreciate Robinson’s excellence.

In her giant slalom victory at Copper Mountain, the 24-year-old Kiwi became the most decorated non-European, non-American Alpine ski racer of all time. She has three Cup wins on the season (trailing only Shiffrin) across multiple disciplines, along with a runner-up and third-place finish to boot. 

If we were heading into the Winter Olympics today, Robinson would have to be considered the prohibitive gold-medal favorite in the giant slalom and (potentially) the super-G. She’s currently first in Cup points in both disciplines. If she can hold on in either come late March, it would be her first career Crystal Globe(s) and the first ever for an Australian Alpine skier, man or woman.

Robinson is expected to start in the giant slalom. Given her recent results, expect her also to put on a show.