Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics |
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| Governing body | FIS |
| Events | 11 (men: 5; women: 5; mixed: 1) |
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Alpine skiing has been contested at every Winter Olympics since 1936, when a combined event was held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
From 1948 through 1980, the Winter Olympics also served as the World Championships in Olympic years, with separate competitions held in even-numbered non-Olympic years. During this period, the Olympic medalists received an additional medal of the same metal from the International Ski Federation (FIS).
The giant slalom was introduced at the 1950 World Championships and at the Olympics in 1952; both programs dropped the combined event, but it returned in 1954 at the World Championships as a "paper" race, using the results of the slalom, giant slalom, and downhill. At the Olympics from 1956 through 1980, World Championship medals were awarded by the FIS in the combined event. It returned as a stand-alone event (one run of downhill, two runs of slalom) at the Olympics in 1988, which also debuted the one-run super-G. The combined event was run on an FIS points system at the Olympics through 1992, then was changed to total time of the three runs. The super combined debuted in 2010, which reduced the slalom portion to one run and the event to one day.
Since 1985, the World Championships have been scheduled every odd-numbered year, independent of the Winter Olympics. At the World Championships, the combined returned as a stand-alone event in 1982 and the super-G debuted in 1987. The combined event went from points to a total time in 1996 (postponed from 1995), and changed to super combined in 2007.
The event is traditionally dominated by Alpine countries, Austria has a commanding lead in total medals with 121 and in gold medals with 37.
See also
In Spanish: Esquí alpino en los Juegos Olímpicos para niños
