With its 104 World Cup races from 1968 to 1998 both for women and men, Val d'Isere has been one of the major stops on the World Cup tour since its creation. This famous area with over 20 000 beds also hosted the men's Olympic competitions in 1992. In fact, the triumphs of some of its greatest champions put Val d'Isere on the map as a top alpine location. In 1948, Henri Oreiller became double Olympic champion in St Moritz. In the 1960's the Goitschel sisters (Marielle and Christine) and Jean Claude Killy amassed several gold medals from 1962 to 1968 at Winter Games and FIS World Championships. Killy was 18 when he celebrated his first major success in his home village of Val d'Isere, winning the GS of the "Criterium de la Premiere Neige" founded in 1955. For a long time, that event was the only one in early December. The World Cup introduced dramatic changes and many races take now place from October to Christmas. Yet Val d'Isere remains a classic on the World Cup road. The World Cup races are held on the Bellevarde/La Daille part of the impressive "Espace Killy" area which connects Val d'Isere to Tignes. The names on the winners' list of Val d'Isere races read like the history of skiing for the past thirty years.