Is Emma Aicher the top alpine skiing World Cup favourite?

Emma Aicher cannot hide that she is aiming for the overall World Cup title but still doesn't want to fuel expectations ahead of Saturday's start of the alpine skiing World Cup season.

The 22-year-old came close last season when she challenged American great Mikaela Shiffrin until the end and only lost out by 87 points.

Shiffrin has now said that she plans to focus mainly on super-g and giant slalom and won't contest every race in her pet event, the slalom, where she won nine out of 10 races last season for 900 of her 1,410 points.

All-rounder Aicher

That could open the door for the 22-year-old Aicher, who like last season plans to compete in every race across the disciplines which automatically makes her a contender again.

‘With four disciplines, it’s quite clear that this is a goal, I think. But in the end, you just have to put it out of your mind somehow," Aicher has said.

"I want to focus on my own things – what I can do better, what I can do to get faster. I can’t influence the rest."

Aicher could make an early impression in Saturday's season-opening giant slalom in Sölden, Austria.

She has five World Cup victories from downhill and super-g races and podium finishes in slalom while she is yet to make the podium in giant slalom where fourth is her best result.

More rivals than Shiffrin

Aicher said that Shiffrin's reduced slalom schedule doesn't automatically make her the favourite because "there are so many other fast girls, regardless of the discipline. I must give my all to be in contention."

Aicher's main plan remains unchanged - "skiing well and having fun" - an approach that earned her two Olympic silver medals in February and will also keep expectations in check this season highlighted by the world championships in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

First since Höfl-Riesch?

Maria Höfl-Riesch is the last German woman to win the overall globe, in 2011, and she believes that Aicher has the quality to follow in her footsteps.

"I am keeping my fingers crossed for her that it continues, that she stays healthy and that she plays a leading role again in the fight for the overall World Cup," Höfl-Riesch told broadcasters Bayerischer Rundfunk.

Head coach Andreas Puelacher meanwhile shared Aicher's cautious approach, saying that "it is not easy to be top over the whole season" and pointing out that Shiffrin is a contender in all disciplines as well.

Puelacher said it is impossible to plan such a title while Aicher's team-mate Kira Weidle-Winkelmann said that "this ease she has on her skis, and also a touch of the naivety in the way she goes about it" were a winning formula together with her talent and class. 

"If she carries on like this and perhaps becomes just a little bit more consistent, especially in the slalom, then yes, who’s going to stop her?” Weidle-Winkelmann said.