The Lake Louise Alpine Ski World Cup is Canada's premiere alpine ski race, inviting the world's best skiers to the majestic Canadian Rocky Mountains. It's the only alpine ski racing World Cup held in Canada annually. Broadcast to a global audience in excess of 100 million; the Winterstart races are the second highest internationally televised sport hosted in Canada. Next to Formula 1T, alpine ski racing is the leader in the European market. The Lake Louise Alpine Ski World Cup offers commercial partners and sponsors the benefits of achieving global branding, consumer activation, B2B initiatives, employee and client hosting, significant media exposure, corporate hosting and more. First hosted in 1980, the Lake Louise Alpine Ski World Cup event is the first outside of Europe ever to be named to the prestigious Club 5, an organization that brings together 13 of the most famous and historic World Cup alpine race courses in the world. The annual hosting of the Winterstart events are the culmination of thousands of person-hours by the race organizing committee and three to four weeks of on snow work by a cadre of volunteers numbering around 200 on any given day! Why do we go to this effort every year? It is about bettering the quality of ski racing in Alberta and Canada for our partners: -Our National team for home course advantages, a supported start to their season and early season training -Our Provincial and local teams as a local opportunity to race on a world cup track as a World Cup racer, as a forerunner or as a speed camp participant -Our younger athletes as one of their first chances to watch this calibre of racing in person -Our ski racing officials as the proving grounds of their abilities and the development of best practises for other levels of racing in Canada -All our athletes through the media and sponsor support that comes back to skiing either directly or indirectly as a result of these annual races