For the first time in the history of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) flagship event, the men’s and women’s events will be held at two separate venues.

The Roc de Fer piste in Meribel will host the women’s events and the parallel slalom medal races - team and individual - while the men will compete on the L’Eclipse track in Courchevel.

Meribel staged the women’s Alpine competitions during Albertville 1992 and featured World Cup events in 2013, 2015 and 2022.

Courchevel’s L’Eclipse made its official debut at last year’s World Cup Finals and is known for its demanding runs - 3.2 kilometres in length, 30 per cent average gradient).

The resorts of Meribel and Courchevel are connected by a 10-km-long road.

Shiffrin, who won a gold at the Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics, failed to earn a medal at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games but has since recovered her fortunes in spectacular fashion.

After securing her fourth overall World Cup title last year, she has maintained spectacular momentum this season.

Earlier this month she surpassed fellow American Lindsey Vonn's 82 World Cup career wins on the women's circuit and she now stands just one win away from equalling the overall record of 86 World Cup victories established by Jan Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden.

Now the 27-year-old from Vail, Colorado, stands on the brink of creating further history in the World Championships.

She is already the only skier to have won gold medals at five consecutive World Championships and will be defending the combined title she won at the last edition at Cortina d’Ampezzo in 2021.

She is also tied in second place in the all-time women’s medal list with 11, including six golds, along with France's Marielle Goitschel and Anja Parson of Sweden.

Given that she earned four medals at the last World Championships, the record of Germany’s Christl Cranz, who won 15 medals between 1934 and 1939, is a realistic target.

Around 600 athletes from 75 countries are expected to compete across six disciplines - downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, combined and parallel slalom - for a total of 13 sets of medals.

Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami, 31, is the second-most-successful active skier in the competition behind Shiffrin with a total of eight medals.

In France, she will aim to defend her titles in giant slalom and super-G.

Petra Vlohova of Slovakia, the Olympic slalom champion, has won five individual medals at the worlds and will be one to watch in the slalom and combined events, although her only title came from giant slalom in 2019.

Italy’s Sofia Goggia, who missed Cortina 2021 with injury, has won two medals at the World Championships - a bronze in giant slalom and a silver in super-G - but never gold.

She will seek a maiden world title in downhill, a discipline in which she has won two World Cup titles and an Olympic silver.

Also among the title contenders in the women’s events will be Raghnild Mowinckel, the double Olympic medallist from the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games, who has recently re-discovered her best form following two serious knee injuries and now tops the World Cup super-G standings.

Meanwhile in the men's Alpine events, 25-year-old Swiss athlete Odermatt has risen to prominence in the space of the last year, having confirmed the promise of six world junior titles with victory in the Beijing 2022 giant slalom.

Odermatt currently tops the overall World Cup standings, and recently secured the World Cup super-G title.

After coming away from the last World Championships empty-handed, he will not lack for motivation to add at least one senior title to the six junior versions he already has.

He will have serious opposition however in the form of Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who like Odermatt won his first Olympic medals in Beijing - silver in the combined and bronze in the super-G.

Austria's Vincent Kriechmayr will also be a force to be reckoned with as he defends the super-G and downhill world titles.

Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway is a giant slalom champion from 2019 and slalom bronze medallist from 2021, whose technical ability always gives him a chance of success.

At 22, Norway’s Lucas Braathen is one of the rising Alpine stars and will be eager to win his first medal at a senior major event after missing the 2021 worlds with injury.

This season, he's been the most consistent skier in slalom, with five podium finishes and two wins in the World Cup.