The World Cup season is over and the globes have been presented. Behind the successful racers there is always the industry, most importantly the ski brands that accompany the athletes all year long.
FIS has been publishing a so-called brand ranking for five seasons now. It is based on the top six results in each World Cup event. In the 2009/2010 season there seems to have been two brands above the others: Atomic and Head. Those two dueled all season for the overall supremacy which Atomic in the end claimed with 6905 points over 6315 for Head. While Atomic dominated the men's overall rankings with 5'070 points, thanks to such excellent racers as Carlo Janka, Benjamin Raich, Aksel Lund Svindal, Marcel Hirscher, Michael Walchhofer and Erik Guay, Head was the measure of all things on the ladies' side (4'830 points). Head's team on the ladies includes Lindsey Vonn (11 victories on her own!), Maria Riesch, Anja Paerson, Elisabeth Goergl and Sarka Zahrobska, just to mention a few.
On the men's side, Atomic won the brand rankings in all five individual events. On the ladies' side Head claimed the win in four of the five events but was beaten by Rossignol for the ladies' GS title. Last season (2008/2009), Rossignol won the ladies' ranking and finished 2nd in the overall (3rd this year), mostly thanks to the outstanding season for Lindsey Vonn who switched her ski brand for this season.
Altogether there were 11 ski brands ranked. The most contested events were the men's slalom and the ladies' slalom where eight brands made it to the top 6 this season. For more details click here.
