FIS Alpine Ski World Cup - Nations Cup

Nations Cup

The Nations Cup standings are calculated by adding up all points each season for all racers from a given nation.

Year Total Standings Men's Standings Women's Standings
First Second Third First Second Third First Second Third
1967 FRA AUT CAN FRA AUT SUI FRA AUT CAN
1968 FRA AUT SUI AUT FRA SUI FRA AUT USA
1969 AUT FRA USA AUT FRA SUI FRA USA AUT
1970 FRA AUT USA FRA AUT SUI FRA USA AUT
1971 FRA AUT SUI FRA SUI AUT FRA AUT USA
1972 FRA AUT SUI SUI FRA ITA FRA AUT USA
1973 AUT FRA SUI AUT ITA SUI AUT FRA FRG
1974 AUT ITA SUI ITA AUT SUI AUT FRG FRA
1975 AUT ITA SUI ITA AUT SUI AUT SUI FRG
1976 AUT SUI ITA ITA AUT SUI AUT FRG SUI
1977 AUT SUI ITA AUT SUI ITA AUT SUI FRA
1978 AUT SUI USA AUT ITA SWE AUT SUI FRG
1979 AUT SUI ITA AUT SUI ITA AUT FRG USA
1980 AUT SUI LIE AUT SUI SWE AUT
SUI		 LIE
1981 SUI USA AUT AUT SUI USA SUI USA FRG
1982 SUI AUT USA AUT SUI USA FRG SUI USA
1983 SUI AUT USA SUI AUT SWE SUI AUT USA
1984 SUI AUT USA AUT SUI SWE SUI USA AUT
1985 SUI AUT FRG SUI AUT ITA SUI FRG AUT
1986 SUI AUT FRG AUT SUI ITA SUI AUT FRG
1987 SUI AUT FRG SUI AUT ITA SUI AUT FRG
1988 AUT SUI FRG AUT SUI ITA SUI AUT FRG
1989 SUI AUT FRG AUT SUI FRG SUI AUT FRA
1990 AUT SUI FRG AUT SUI ITA AUT SUI FRG
1991 AUT SUI GER AUT SUI NOR AUT SUI GER
1992 AUT SUI GER SUI AUT ITA AUT GER SUI
1993 AUT SUI GER AUT SUI NOR AUT GER SUI
1994 AUT SUI ITA AUT NOR SUI GER AUT SUI
1995 AUT SUI ITA AUT ITA NOR SUI GER AUT
1996 AUT SUI ITA AUT SUI ITA AUT GER SUI
1997 AUT ITA SUI AUT ITA NOR GER AUT ITA
1998 AUT GER ITA AUT SUI NOR GER AUT ITA
1999 AUT NOR SUI AUT NOR SUI AUT GER FRA
2000 AUT ITA SUI AUT SUI NOR AUT FRA ITA
2001 AUT SUI FRA AUT SUI NOR AUT FRA SUI
2002 AUT SUI ITA AUT SUI FRA AUT SUI ITA
2003 AUT SUI USA AUT SUI USA AUT ITA GER
2004 AUT ITA USA AUT ITA SUI AUT GER USA
2005 AUT USA ITA AUT USA ITA AUT USA GER
2006 AUT USA ITA AUT USA ITA AUT SWE USA
2007 AUT SUI USA AUT SUI ITA AUT USA SWE
2008 AUT SUI ITA AUT SUI ITA AUT USA ITA
2009 AUT SUI ITA AUT SUI ITA AUT SUI GER
2010 AUT SUI ITA AUT SUI ITA AUT GER SUI
2011 AUT SUI ITA AUT SUI ITA AUT GER USA
2012 AUT ITA SUI AUT SUI ITA AUT USA ITA

The early years of the World Cup were largely dominated by the French ski team, as reflected in their Nations Cup wins in 5 of the first 6 years. The Austrian team then took over throughout the rest of the 1970s, followed by Swiss superiority during most of the 1980s. A resurgent Austrian team charged back to the top in 1990, beginning a long streak of consecutive Nations Cup triumphs. Austrian dominance reached its zenith in the late 1990s and 2000s (decade), when their point total regularly doubled that of the second place finisher, and was capped in the 1999–2000 and 2003–4 seasons with totals that tripled those of runner-up Italy. Their 17927 point total in 1999–2000 is a Nations Cup record, as is their 12066 point margin of victory in 2003–4.

As of the end of the 2011–12 season, the Austrian team has won 23 consecutive Nations Cups, while topping the men's standings for 20 straight years and the women's for 14 in a row. Austria is the only nation to have finished in the top 3 of the Nations Cup standings in all 46 years in which World Cup competition has been held, winning in 33 of those years, runner-up in 12 years, and third place in a single year. In the midst of the ongoing Austrian juggernaut, the Swiss or Italian teams have usually held second place. The German team reached the runner-up spot for the first time in 1997–8, as did the Norwegians the next season. The USA enjoyed its best placings ever starting in 2004–5, grabbing second in the Nations Cup for two straight years.

Under the current scoring system (since 1992), the winning nation (Austria every year) has averaged over 13000 points, with an average of over 6400 for the runner-up, 5400 for third place, 4200 for fifth, and 1300 for tenth. The all-inclusive scoring system (simply adding together all World Cup points earned) favors national teams with great depth and many racers scoring World Cup points, and even teams with several top racers have no realistic chance of breaking the Austrian grip on the top spot, while a team with only one or two top-ranked racers will struggle to ever break the top five in the standings. There have been numerous calls for a revamped scoring system which would allow other nations to compete more readily for top spots in the Nations Cup, but no changes are likely to be made.

The total number of top-three placings for each nation in the Nations Cup (through the 2011–12 season) are summarized below:

Nation Total Standings Men's Standings Women's Standings
First Second Third First Second Third First Second Third
Austria 33 12 1 35 9 1 27 12 5
Switzerland 8 21 10 5 25 11 10 8 7
France 5 2 1 3 3 2 6 3 4
Italy - 6 14 3 5 17 - 1 6
United States - 3 9 - 2 3 - 8 9
Germany - 1 9 - - 1 4 12 12
Norway - 1 - - 2 7 - - -
Canada - - 1 - - - - - 1
Liechtenstein - - 1 - - - - - 1
Sweden - - - - - 4 - 1 1

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