1988–89 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup
The 23rd World Cup season began in November 1988 in Austria and concluded in March 1989 in Japan. The overall champions were Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg (his third) and Vreni Schneider of Switzerland (her first). Schneider established the record for victories in a World Cup season, winning a total of 14 races (6 (out of 7) giant slaloms, 7 (out of 7) slaloms, and 1 (of 2) combined), surpassing the record of 13 established in 1978-79 by the great Swedish skier and three-time overall World Cup champion Ingemar Stenmark.
| FIS Alpine Ski World Cup 1988/89 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Discipline | Men | Women | |
| Overall | Marc Girardelli | Vreni Schneider | |
| Downhill | Marc Girardelli | Michela Figini | |
| Super G | Pirmin Zurbriggen | Carole Merle | |
| Giant Slalom |
Ole Kristian Furuseth Pirmin Zurbriggen | Vreni Schneider | |
| Slalom | Armin Bittner | Vreni Schneider | |
| Nations Cup | Austria | Switzerland | |
| Nations Cup overall | Switzerland | ||
| Competition | |||
| Locations | 16 | 15 | |
| Individual | 31 | 28 | |
Stenmark, who became the primary example of the transition of the World Cup circuit from fully amateur to fully professional during his 16-year career, retired at the end of the season, after notching his all-time record 86th race victory in February. All of Stenmark's victories were either in giant slalom (46) or slalom (40).
The break in the schedule in early February was for the 1989 World Championships, held in Vail, Colorado, USA.