2022 Winter Olympics: Alpine Skiing

Winter 2018 sees a new event and a new ski slope

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Before it was a sport, skiing was an important means of transportation.

The exact origin of skiing is unclear, but there is evidence that Scandinavians were using skis to travel and hunt over snow-covered terrain as far back as 4,000 years ago.

Organized slalom races were first introduced in Europe during the 1920s and the first world championship was organized in 1931. Shortly thereafter, Americans caught on and interest in this country snowballed throughout the 1930s.

Alpine skiing made its Olympic debut at the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Games with a men's and women's combined event, featuring a downhill and two slalom runs. Giant slalom first appeared at the 1952 Oslo Games and the super giant slalom, or super G, was added at the 1988 Calgary Games. The 2018 games saw the introduction of a new team event, confirmed by the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne in 2015. This marks a notable first in the otherwise very individual sport.

The events

Men and women will each compete in six Alpine skiing events in the Pyeongchang Games:

• downhill: a steep descent against time
• slalom: a short race featuring sharp turns around flags
• giant slalom: longer, looser version of the slalom
• super-G: slalom race that is a bit faster and longer than the giant slalom
• combined: one downhill run followed by two slalom runs; fastest combined time wins
• team event: national teams of two men and two women compete in head-to-head slalom races

The Beijing Games

The Alpine events this year are at the new National Alpine Ski Center, located at the northern edge of greater Beijing. The region where the event is being held does not have consistent natural snowfall, and so the competition will be done with artificial snow. Some environmental groups have raised concerns that this may have unforeseen ecological consequences,

The Alpine medal events begin with men's downhill on Feb. 6, and will conclude with the mixed team parallel event on Feb 19.