Competitions
Various Alpine skiing competitions have developed in the history of skiing. Broadly speaking, competitive skiing is broken up into two disciplines: racing and freestyle.
Racing involves making fast turns around gates in an attempt to attain the fastest overall time down one or two runs of a race course by having the tightest line possible. Elite competitive skiers participate in the annual World Cup series, as well as the quadrennial Olympic Games and the biennial World Championships. Slalom (SL), giant slalom (GS), super giant slalom (super-G), and downhill (DH) are the four racing disciplines. Slalom is the most technical discipline and has the shortest turns with distances ranging from 6 to 15 metres apart. It has speeds that can reach 35 km/h. Downhill is the fastest, where speeds can exceed 140 km/h, showing the clear distinction between the two disciplines. The Giant slalom event is also considered a technical event with medium sized turns and the Super-giant slalom considered a speed event, as similar speeds are reached as in the downhill discipline though jumps are provided. There is also a "Super Combined" event that includes one downhill run and one slalom run in a single day. In 2004, the FIS (Fédération Internationale de Ski) introduced a new event to the World Cup calendar called the super combined, or super combi, consisting of one shortened downhill run and just one slalom run. That year, the FIS also introduced an Alpine team racing event at the World Championships in Bormio, Italy. Ski racing is controlled by a set of rules which are enforced by FIS. These rules include such things as regulation ski sizes, sidecuts, boot heights, binding risers and other regulations such as limitations to chemical substances found in winning racers as well as many other things which all ensure one particular skier has no advantage over another. In 2008, these regulations were changed in order to make it harder for racers to complete a race course. Some changes included increasing the minimum ski length and also the sidecut which makes the ski turn less tightly.In 2008 ski lengths were increased as it was found by physiotherapists that the shorter skis combined with the constant knee jerking movements were considered unnecessarily harmful to racers knees due to the turning radius of the skis (especially the slalom skis) therefore the F.I.S made the minimum ski length for women in slalom 155 cm and men 165 cm. Other size minimums were put in place in the other three events.
Freestyle skiing incorporates events such as moguls, aerials, and sometimes "new-school" events such as halfpipe, big air, slopestyle, and skiercross. Together with extreme skiing, new-school freestyle skiing is also sometimes known as freeskiing. Until relatively recently, freestyle competitions also included an event called ballet, later renamed "acro-ski".
In addition to racing and freestyle, other types of Alpine skiing competitions exist. One discipline administered by the FIS but not usually considered part of racing is speed skiing, in which competitors strive to achieve the highest total speed in a straight line, with no gates or turns. Numerous non-FIS competitions have emerged over the years. More traditional events include gelandesprung jumping (ski jumping for distance on Alpine equipment), and "powder 8" contests; among the more recent introductions are "big mountain" or "extreme skiing" contests, in which athletes start at the top of a mountain and ski a route down that involves wide, fast turns as well as cliff drops. The competitors are judged on the technical difficulty of their routes and any tricks they perform on the way down the hill.
Read more about this topic: Alpine Skiing