1992–93 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup
The 27th World Cup season began in November 1992 in Sestriere, Italy for men and Park City, Utah, USA for women, and concluded in March 1993 at the newly created World Cup Final in Åre, Sweden. A break in the schedule was for the 1993 World Championships, held in Morioka, Japan, from February 4–14.
| FIS Alpine Ski World Cup 1992/93 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Discipline | Men | Women | |
| Overall | Marc Girardelli | Anita Wachter | |
| Downhill | Franz Heinzer | Katja Seizinger | |
| Super G | Kjetil André Aamodt | Carole Merle | |
| Giant Slalom | Kjetil André Aamodt | Carole Merle | |
| Slalom | Thomas Fogdö | Vreni Schneider | |
| Nations Cup | Austria | Austria | |
| Nations Cup overall | Austria | ||
| Competition | |||
| Locations | 17 | 12 | |
| Individual | 34 | 32 | |
Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg won his fifth overall title, which was the most for a man in World Cup history until surpassed by Austrian Marcel Hirscher in 2017. Anita Wachter of Austria won the women's overall title, her first. Both winners won narrow victories because of their superior performance in the combined (Girardelli won all three for men en route to a 32-point victory over Kjetil André Aamodt; Wachter won one of the two for women (and was fourth in the other) en route to a 20-point victory over Katja Seizinger). In December, defending women's World Cup champion Petra Kronberger of Austria abruptly retired, saying that she had lost her motivation to continue.
Lack of snow in Europe during the winter caused the schedule to be significantly rearranged. All of the races at the classic sites of Wengen and Kitzbühel were cancelled. Snowmaking was installed at Kitzbühel that summer as a result. Also, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved into two countries—the Czech Republic and Slovakia—effective as of January 1, 1993, although the ski team remained unified until the end of the season.
At the end of the season in March, the International Ski Federation (FIS) added a World Cup Final, which immediately became a permanent part of the World Cup agenda. During this final, weather permitting, men's and women's races are held in each of the four disciplines: slalom, giant slalom, Super G, and downhill, as well as a team parallel slalom competition. Only a limited number of racers are invited to ski at the Finals, including the top 25 in the World Cup standings in each discipline, plus the current junior World Champions in each discipline, plus competitors for the overall title who failed to qualify on points within the discipline (if any). Because of the smaller field, World Cup points are only awarded to the top 15 finishers in each race.