Alpine Skiing

What’s Alpine Skiing ?

At Milano Cortina 2026, the alpine skiing events will include fast disciplines like downhill and super-G, technical disciplines like slalom and giant slalom, and mixed events such as the Alpine combined (a mix of speed and technique).

Speed disciplines

The downhill, such as the super-G, has long courses that take more than a minute and a half to complete, with large distances between the gates. This leads to the fastest speeds in alpine skiing. Athletes can practice and test the track and ideal paths in timed training sessions before the race.

The super-G, which stands for super giant slalom, is the second fastest discipline in alpine skiing and one of the most recent. It was introduced by the International Ski Federation (FIS) in 1982. The race follows a course lined with pairs of gates. Skiers are disqualified if they miss even a single gate during the descent. Compared to the other two slalom disciplines, the super-G slalom has much wider turns and is therefore skied at higher speeds. In fact, it is raced on the same slopes used for the downhill event.

The downhill and super-G races are held in one round. In both races, the winner is determined by the fastest time.