Annemarie Moser-Proll
Janica Kostelic
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Annemarie Moser-Proll leads 3 of 5 categories. Our all-time ranking places Annemarie Moser-Proll at #5 and Janica Kostelic at #9.
The case for Annemarie Moser-Proll
The most complete dominance any woman exercised over the World Cup before Shiffrin. Moser-Proll won five consecutive overall Crystal Globes from 1971 to 1975, retired at 25, came back and won a sixth in 1979 — still the women's record — with 62 race victories in a period when the calendar was far shorter than it is today. Between December 1972 and January 1973 she won eleven consecutive downhills, a streak in a single discipline no racer has matched. She took five world championship golds and, at Lake Placid in 1980 in her final season, the Olympic downhill title that had eluded her through two silver medals at Sapporo in 1972. Contemporaries described a racer who simply attacked terrain other women managed, and her win rate across the seasons she contested remains the highest of any woman in the sport's history.
The case for Janica Kostelic
The greatest championship racer in alpine history, from a country with no ski culture, no federation money and almost no mountains suitable for World Cup racing. Kostelic trained across Europe out of a family car with her father as coach, and at Salt Lake City in 2002 won giant slalom, combined and slalom golds plus super-G silver — four medals at one Games, the most any alpine skier has taken, and a haul no woman has matched. She defended the combined title at Turin in 2006 for a fourth Olympic gold, level with Kjetil Andre Aamodt at the top of the sport's all-time list. She won three overall Crystal Globes and 30 World Cup races, and a hat-trick of golds at the 2003 world championships in St. Moritz. She retired at 25 after nine knee operations and a thyroid condition, having won everything available on a body that had effectively been rebuilt twice.