Known to many simply as "the night race", the event in Austria is one of the biggest events in the slalom calendar and regularly features crowds of around 50,000 fans.

Racing in front of the Planai Stadium, home favourite Marcel Hirscher, looking for an eighth overall World Cup title in a row, will hope to triumph once again.

The 29-year-old double Olympic gold medallist, who has won the overall World Cup title every year since 2012, finished first last year in front of Norway's 2014 Olympic bronze medallist Henrik Kristoffersen and Switzerland's Daniel Yule, who won team gold at Pyeongchang 2018.

Hirscher, considered by many to be the greatest Alpine skier of all time, will undoubtedly be the favourite on home snow.

Last time out in Kitzbuehel, another Austrian resort, the current World Cup leader put in a relatively poor first run and left himself too much to do, meaning he finished second behind France's Clement Noel.

The time before that in Wengen in Switzerland, Hirscher also failed to win, finishing third behind Noel again and another Austrian, Manuel Feller.

If anyone is to beat Hirscher in Schladming then it may well be Noel, who has not lost since Adelboden on January 13.

The first runs will start tomorrow at 5.45pm local time, before the podium-deciding second runs begin at 8.45pm.