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Alpine Skiing

Alpine skiing events were held for the first time at the Winter Olympics in 1936, though ski instructors were barred as they were classified as being professionals. This decision led to an Austrian and Swiss boycott, and to the decision not to have skiing events in the 1940 Games.

In 1948 at St Moritz, Men and women each had three alpine skiing events. Currently Alpine Skiing includes 10 events, for both men and women, including:

• downhill
• super g
• giant slalom
• slalom
• combined events

Trivia

• Austrian Franz Klammer won gold in downhill skiing in Innsbruck in 1976.

• Swiss skiier Vreni Schneider, whose herniated disk had kept her from winning anything at the previous Games in 1992, won medals in all three alpine skiing events in 1994, bringing her total to five.

• In the 1998 Nagano Games, there was a spectacular "human-cannonball" fall by Austrian Hermann "The Herminator" Maier in the men's downhill. The fall ruined his chances as favourite in the event, but incredibly he got back on his skis again to win gold medals in the Super-G and the Giant Slalom.

• Also at the 1998 Nagano Games, Katja Seizinger of Germany became the first woman to win the downhill gold in successive Olympics, while American Picabo Street shrugged off debilitating injuries to win the gold medal in the Super G.

• At Salt Lake City in 2002, the Croat Janica Kostelic won three golds in the alpine skiing, a triple feat only achived previously by the greats Toni Sailer and Jean-Claude Killy.

Related Pages

• Alpine Skiing Videos
• more Winter Olympics Sports
• Winter Olympics main page.