Snow Skiing Events in the Winter Olympics

Snow Skiing Events in
the Winter Olympics

Snow Skiing began in locations where there was deep snow on a constant basis, providing a means of transportation for moving about. Original equipment used for snow skiing comprised of long, narrow planks fastened to boots, and poles to assist skiers keep balance and improve their speed.

In modern times snow skiing is a competitive sport and has become a popular recreational activity for many. The sport involves gliding over snow either in sloped or horizontal areas. There are many variations of the sport such as downhill, cross-country, and freestyle snow skiing and ski jumping to name just a few. Snowboarding is another popular sport which evolved from snow skiing.

Probably the most popular snow skiing technique is downhill skiing where skiers manoeuvre down a challenging ski slope. Speed and form are very important factors in this sport, which became popular in the 1920's in Europe, and consequently, was of the sports events at the Olympic Games held in France in 1924.

Downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super giant slalom and the combined category are the five snow skiing events now hosted in the Winter Olympics. In competitive downhill skiing, skiers reach approximately 130 kilometres per hour navigating a course with wide turns, helping to control the speed. Skiers are required to have excellent turning skills to master downhill skiing and the contestant finishing the course the fastest will be the winner. Just one practise run before the start of the competition is permitted.

Slalom has the shortest course of all of snow skiing events. It is necessary for skiers to be agile and quick as the slalom course features between 40 and 75 turns passing through gates which can be anything from 4 and 15 metres apart. The skier who finishes two runs in the least amount of time is the winner of the race.

The main difference between slalom and a giant slalom (or GS as it is known) is that the course is longer and the gates are placed further apart on the GS course. The ground is usually uneven and skiers must move through a mix of rolling, flat and steep terrain. As in slalom, the fastest skier to complete two runs wins the race. Super giant slalom or super G incorporates speed and aggression in a race combining features of downhill skiing and slalom all rolled into one. The turns on a super G course are long and sweeping with a hilly and rolling terrain, enabling high-speed turning. In a combined snow skiing event, competitors join the slalom and downhill races and and the winner is determined by a specific computation of the skiers’ times.