Alpine Skiing

Sport Overview

Alpine Skiing at Beijing 2022

Venue: Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre

Competition Dates: February 6-11, 13, 15-17, 19 (Days 2-7, 9, 11-13, 15)

Events: 11 (5 men, 5 women, 1 mixed)

Trivia: Test your knowledge!

In the ten individual Olympic alpine skiing events, skiers race against the clock with each event timed to the hundredth of a second (0.01). The team event pits nations head-to-head. The events can generally be divided into speed and technical categories.

Downhill involves the highest speeds and the biggest risks. It features the greatest vertical drop (up to 1100m for men and up to 800m for women) over which skiers can reach speeds up to 130 km/hr, while facing flats, jumps, shallow dips and challenging turns.

The super giant slalom (super-G for short) has a slightly lower vertical drop than the downhill, but includes more gates requiring more technical skill. The skier with the fastest time over one run is the winner.

For both of those speed events, the winner is the skier with the fastest time over a single run.

In the giant slalom, the vertical drop isn’t as big as the downhill or super-G, but there is a combination of long, medium and short turns to navigate through the gates.

The shortest alpine event is the slalom, which consists of the lowest vertical drop but the most gates, requiring mass amounts of technical skill.

For both of those technical events, skiers do two runs over different courses on the same hill, with the fastest cumulative time winning.

Alpine combined includes one run of slalom and either a shortened downhill or super-G. The skier with the fastest cumulative time after the two runs is the winner.

The newest Olympic alpine event, nation team, features two women and two men from the same country racing through giant slalom gates in a head-to-head competition. Facing a skier of the same gender from an opposing country, the winner will receive one point for their team. If at the end of the four races a heat is tied 2-2, the nation with the lowest combined time of their best man and best woman will win the heat. The event begins with 16 teams and continues through a bracket until only two remain to race for gold while the semifinal losers race for bronze.

Canadian History (Pre-Beijing 2022)

Canada has won 11 Olympic medals since alpine skiing debuted at Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936.

Jan Hudec was the most recent, winning super-G bronze at Sochi 2014 for Canada’s first Olympic alpine skiing medal since Edi Podivinsky won downhill bronze 20 years earlier at Lillehammer 1994. The only other Canadian man with an Olympic alpine medal is Steve Podborski, who also won downhill bronze at Lake Placid 1980.

Canada’s Anne Heggtveit competes in alpine skiing

Canada’s Lucile Wheeler participates in an alpine ski event at the Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956 Olympic Winter Games. Wheeler won a bronze medal in the downhill event. (CP Photo/COC)

Nancy Greene wears her Olympic medals from Grenoble 1968

Karen Percy poses with her bronze medals at Calgary 1988

Canada’s Kathy Kreiner competes in alpine skiing at the Lake Placid Olympic Winter Games. (CP PHOTO/ COC)

Canada’s Kerrin Lee-Gartner celebrates the gold medal she won in the women’s downhill at the Albertville 1992 Olympic Winter Games. (CP PHOTO/COC/F. Scott Grant)

It’s the women who have dominated Canada’s medal count in alpine skiing, starting with Lucile Wheeler who won downhill bronze at Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956. Anne Heggtveit got the first gold four years later in the slalom at Squaw Valley 1960.

Nancy Greene was Canada’s first double medallist in alpine skiing, winning giant slalom gold and slalom silver at Grenoble 1968. Karen Percy has a pair of bronze medals from Calgary 1988, in the downhill and super-G.

Gold medals were also won by Kathy Kreiner in the giant slalom at Innsbruck 1976 and Kerrin Lee-Gartner in the downhill at Albertville 1992.