A ski racer competing in giant slalom

Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles (gates) spaced at a greater distance to each other than in slalom but less than in super G.

Giant slalom and slalom make up the technical events in alpine ski racing. This category separates them from the speed events of super G and downhill. The technical events are normally composed of two runs, held on different courses on the same ski run.

Course[link]

The vertical drop for a GS course must be 250–450 metres (820–1476 ft) for men, 250–400 m (820–1312 ft) for women. The number of gates in this event is 56–70 for men and 46–58 for women. The number of direction changes in a GS course equals 11–15% of the vertical drop of the course in metres, 13–15% for children. As an example, on a 300 m (984 ft) vertical course, there would be between 33 and 45 direction changes for an adult race.^[1]

Speed[link]

Although not the fastest event in skiing, on average a well trained racer may hit speeds of 50+ mph. Faster events such as Super G, can reach speeds 80+ mph, and slower events such as slalom averaging out at 25- mph.

Equipment[link]

Giant slalom skis are shorter than super G and downhill skis, and longer than slalom skis.

In an attempt to increase safety for the 2003–04 season, the FIS increased the minimum sidecut radius for giant slalom skis to 21 m (69 ft) and for the first time imposed minimum ski lengths for GS: 185 cm (72.8 in.) for men and 180 cm (70.9 in.) for women. A maximum stand height (the distance from the snow to the sole of the boot) of 55 mm (2.165 in.) was also established for all disciplines.

In May 2006, the FIS announced further changes to the rules governing equipment. Beginning with the 2007–08 season, the minimum radius for GS skis was increased to 27 m (88.6 ft) for men and 23 m (75.4 ft) for women. Additionally, the minimum ski width at the waist was increased from 60 to 65 mm (2.56 in.), and the maximum stand height for all disciplines was reduced to 50 mm (1.97 in.).^[1]

History[link]

The first giant slalom was set on the Marmolata in Italy's Dolomite mountains, by Guenther Langes in 1935. ^[2]

The giant slalom was first run in the world championships in 1950 in Aspen, Colorado, and debuted at the Winter Olympics in 1952 in Oslo, Norway. The GS has been run in every world championships and Olympics since.

Upon its introduction, giant slalom briefly displaced the combined event at the world championships, until it returned in 1954 in Åre, Sweden. The combined did not return as an Olympic event until 1988 at Nakiska, the alpine skiing venue west of Calgary, Alberta.

See also[link]

• Parallel giant slalom, a snowboard discipline
• List of Olympic medalists in men's giant slalom
• List of Olympic medalists in women's giant slalom
• List of Paralympic medalists in men's giant slalom
• List of Paralympic medalists in women's giant slalom
• List of World Champions in giant slalom
• Slalom
• Super giant slalom (super G)
• Downhill
• Combined
• Skiing and skiing topics
• U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association

References[link]

Slalom is an alpine skiing discipline, involving skiing between poles (gates) spaced much closer together than in Giant Slalom, Super-G or Downhill, thereby causing quicker and shorter turns.

Origins[link]

The word "Slalom" is from the Morgedal/Seljord dialect of Norwegian slalåm: "sla," meaning slightly inclining hillside, and "låm," meaning track after skis. The inventors of modern skiing classified their trails according to their difficulty. Slalåm was a trail used in Telemark by boys and girls not yet able to try themselves on the more challenging runs. Ufsilåm was a trail with one obstacle (ufse) like a jump, a fence, a difficult turn, a gorge, a cliff (often more than 10 meters high) and more. Uvyrdslåm was a trail with several obstacles.^[1]

Proper definition[link]

Slalom and Giant Slalom make up the "technical events" in alpine ski racing. This category separates them from the "speed events" like Super-G and Downhill.

A course is constructed by laying out a series of gates. Gates are formed by alternating pairs of red and blue poles. The skier must pass between the two poles forming the gate. (Strictly speaking, the tips of both skis and the skier's feet must pass between the poles.) A course has 55 to 75 gates for men and 40 to 60 gates for women.

For slalom the vertical offset between gates is around 9 meters (30 feet) and the horizontal offset around 2 metres (6.5 feet), although these figures have changed in recent times because of significant technical developments in ski equipment (namely, increased sidecut) that have revolutionized the sport. The gates are arranged in a variety of different configurations to challenge the competitor, including delay gates and vertical combinations known as hairpins and flushes. A hairpin is a series of gates including two gates with one closing gate. A flush is a series of gates including three or more gates with one closing gate. The worldwide governing body, FIS (Federation Internationale de Ski) has a set of regulations detailing what configurations are allowed or mandated for an official course.

Because the offsets are relatively small in slalom, skiers take a fairly direct line and often knock the poles out of the way as they pass, which is known as blocking. (The main blocking technique in modern slalom is cross-blocking, in which the skier takes such a tight line and angulates so strongly that he or she is able to block the gate with the inside hand.) In modern slalom, a variety of protective equipment is used such as shin pads, hand guards, helmets and face guards.

Rules for slalom skiing are managed internationally by the International Ski Federation. In the United States, skiing events including slalom are managed by the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.

For those who live in a warmer climate, slalom skiing is defined as water skiing with only one ski through a course very similar to the downhill skiing version. The boat drives through the middle buoys while the skiier cuts through the water from side to side, rounding a buoy on each pass.

History[link]

The rules for the modern slalom were developed by Sir Arnold Lunn in 1922 for the British National Ski Championships, tried by the FIS in 1928, and adopted for the 1936 Winter Olympics. Under his rules, the gates were marked by pairs of flags rather than single ones, were arranged so that the racers had to use a variety of turn lengths to negotiate them, and scoring was on the basis of time alone, not time and style.

Innovation and rule changes[link]

In the early 1980s, bamboo poles were replaced by hard plastic hinged poles invented in 1979 by Peter Laehy and Stefan Dag of Aspen based rapidgate, inc. The new gates allowed skiers to take a much more direct path down a slalom course through the process of "cross-blocking" or "as shinning" the gates. Cross-blocking is when a skier's legs go around the gate with their upper body aiming at the gate and their outside arm going forward and their outside pole would hit the gate and their shinguards would hit the gate down. The rigid nature of bamboo gates had forced skiers to maneuver their entire body around each gate, while the hinged gates require only that the skis and boots of the skier (as the FIS rules state) go around each gate, with the body passing through or on the inside of the pole. In the early 1990s, flags were removed completely from slalom gates in international competition.

Equipment[link]

With the innovation of "shaped" skis around the turn of the 21st century, equipment used for slalom in international competition changed drastically. World Cup skiers commonly skied on slalom skis at a length of 203-207 centimeters in the 1980s and 1990s but by the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the majority of competitors were using skis measuring 160 cm or less.

The downside of the shorter skis was that athletes found that recoveries were more difficult with a smaller platform underfoot. Over concern for the safety of athletes, the FIS began to set minimum ski lengths for international slalom competition. The minimum was initially set at 155 cm for men and 150 cm for women, but was increased to 165 cm for men and 155 cm for women for the 2003-2004 season.

American Bode Miller hastened the shift to the shorter, more radical sidecut skis when he achieved unexpected success after becoming the first Junior Olympic athlete to adopt the equipment in giant slalom and super G in 1996. A few years later, the technology was adapted to slalom skis as well.

See also[link]

• List of Olympic medalists in men's slalom
• List of Olympic medalists in women's slalom
• List of Paralympic medalists in men's slalom
• List of Paralympic medalists in women's slalom
• List of World Champions in slalom
• Downhill
• Super G
• Giant Slalom
• Alpine skiing combined
• U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association - National governing body for Olympic skiing and snowboarding in the United States

• Skiing and Skiing Topics

References[link]

Didier Cuche
Cuche in February 2011
Personal information
Full name	Didier Cuche
Born	(1974-08-16) August 16, 1974 (age 37) Le Pâquier, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Professional information
Club	Chasseral Dombresson
Skis	Head
World Cup
Seasons	1993 – 2012
Wins	22
Additional podiums	45
Total podiums	67
Updated on 25 February 2012.

Medal record
Competitor for  Switzerland
Men's Alpine Skiing
Olympic Games
Silver	1998 Nagano	Super-G
World Championships
Gold	2009 Val d'Isère	Super-G
Silver	2011 Garmisch	Downhill
Silver	2009 Val d'Isère	Downhill
Bronze	2007 Åre	Giant Slalom

Didier Cuche (born August 16, 1974) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland. Born in Le Pâquier, Neuchâtel, he primarily competed in the speed disciplines of downhill and Super G, along with the technical discipline of giant slalom. He won the World Cup downhill and Super-G title for the 2011 season and has won three previous downhill titles in 2010, 2008 and 2007, along with a giant slalom title in 2009. Cuche has 21 World Cup race victories, along with 67 podiums (top three) and 181 top ten finishes.^[1] He is also an Olympic silver medalist and has won a total of four World Championships medals (a gold, two silvers, and a bronze). He retired from competition following the 2012 season.

Career highlights[link]

At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Cuche was the silver medalist in the Super G, where he had exactly the same time as Hans Knauss resulting in a rare sharing of the medal (no bronze medal was awarded).

Cuche switched from Atomic to Head skis following the 2006 season, joining Bode Miller and Hermann Maier.

During the 2007 season, Cuche was in top form, winning the downhill season title with a victory and four second place finishes. In the Bormio downhill on December 28, 2006, he finished second, 0.01 seconds behind winner Michael Walchhofer, the smallest measurable amount in ski racing.

Cuche repeated as the World Cup downhill season champion in 2008 with 584 points, five ahead of overall champion Bode Miller. Cuche finished third overall and nearly won the Super-G season title, finishing a single point behind champion Hannes Reichelt.^[2]

At the 2009 World Championships in Val d'Isère, France, Cuche won the Super-G and was the silver medalist in the downhill.

A week after winning the Super-G and downhill at Kitzbühel in 2010, Cuche broke his right thumb in the giant slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia on January 29, two weeks before the 2010 Winter Olympics.^[3] The injury put Cuche's Olympic participation in doubt, and he was immediately flown to Switzerland. After successful thumb surgery, he was cleared to compete in the Olympics in Canada.^[4] Cuche had a disappointing Olympics and did not win any medal; however, he regained the title of World Cup downhill champion for the 2010 season at the first post-Olympic race. Cuche won the downhill on the challenging Olympiabakken course at Kvitfjell, Norway, on March 6 for his fifth World Cup victory of the season. Until 2010, Cuche had never won more than two World Cup events in a single season.

On January 22, 2011, Cuche became the oldest race winner in the history of the World Cup, winning the Hahnenkamm downhill in Kitzbühel at the age of &1000000000000003600000036 years, &10000000000000159000000159 days.^[5] It was also his fourth downhill victory in Kitzbühel, which tied him with Franz Klammer for the record on the Hahnenkamm, which is generally considered the most difficult and dangerous of all downhill courses. He has since added a fifth victory in Kitzbühel to his tally, thus becoming the sole record holder^[6]; Klammer was there to congratulate him at the finish.

At the 2011 World Championships in February, he won the silver medal in the downhill. In March he won the World Cup downhill championship for the 2011 season. This marked the fourth time he captured the season title (2011, 2010, 2008, 2007), a record only surpassed by Franz Klammer who won the title five times. He ended the 2011 World Cup season in first place ranking in Downhill and Super-G, finishing second in the Overall rankings to Ivica Kostelić.

Cuche in 2010

After considerable speculation as to whether Cuche might instead retire, he opened the 2012 World Cup season by winning the downhill race at Lake Louise, Canada,^[7] further extending the age record he had last broken at &1000000000000003600000036 years, &10000000000000209000000209 days in a Super-G at Kvitfjell in March 2011. That record was extended yet again at Kitzbühel in January 2012 to &1000000000000003700000037 years, &10000000000000158000000158 days.

On January 19, 2012, Cuche announced his retirement for the end of the 2012 season.^[8] He gave his retirement speech in Kitzbühel during which he stated that he wanted to “leave the World Cup stage on a high”.^[9] Only two days later, Cuche won the Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbühel for the fifth time in his career, including his very first World Cup win in 1998.^[6] The following week, Cuche won the downhill at Garmisch, Germany, for his twentieth World Cup victory.

Besides his remarkable durability and his broad popularity, Cuche is well known for a post-race signature move in which he kicks out of, spins and catches one of his skis in a quick, fluid motion - and perhaps giving it a ceremonial kiss.

Other Awards[link]

Cuche won the Swiss Sports Personality of the Year in 2009 and 2011. In January 2012 during the "Swiss Awards" he won the Swiss Person of the Year award in 2011.

World Cup results[link]

Season standings[link]

Season titles[link]

6 season titles: 4 downhill, 1 Super-G, 1 giant slalom

Individual races[link]

• 21 wins: (12 downhill, 6 super G, 3 giant slalom)

Season	Date	Location	Discipline
1998	23 Jan 1998	Kitzbühel, Austria	Downhill
2002	5 Jan 2002	Adelboden, Switzerland	Giant Slalom
	7 Mar 2002	Altenmarkt, Austria	Super-G
2003	8 Dec 2002	Beaver Creek, USA	Super-G
2004	30 Jan 2004	Garmisch, Germany	Downhill
2007	10 Mar 2007	Kvitfjell, Norway	Downhill
2008	14 Dec 2007	Val Gardena, Italy	Super-G
	19 Jan 2008	Kitzbühel, Austria	Downhill
2009
	21 Feb 2009	Sestriere, Italy	Giant Slalom
2010	25 Oct 2009	Sölden, Austria	Giant Slalom
	28 Nov 2009	Lake Louise, Canada	Downhill
	22 Jan 2010	Kitzbühel, Austria	Super-G
	23 Jan 2010		Downhill
	6 Mar 2010	Kvitfjell, Norway	Downhill
2011	22 Jan 2011	Kitzbühel, Austria	Downhill
	29 Jan 2011	Chamonix, France	Downhill
	13 Mar 2011	Kvitfjell, Norway	Super-G
2012	26 Nov 2011	Lake Louise, Canada	Downhill
	21 Jan 2012	Kitzbühel, Austria	Downhill
	28 Jan 2012	Garmisch, Germany	Downhill
	24 Feb 2012	Crans-Montana, Switzerland	Super-G

References[link]

External links[link]

• Didier Cuche at the International Ski Federation
• FIS-ski.com – World Cup season standings – Didier Cuche - 1996–2012
• Ski-db.com - results - Didier Cuche
• Sports Reference.com - Olympic results - Didier Cuche
• Didier Cuche.ch – personal site - (French)
• Swiss Ski team - official site - (German)
• Head Skis - teams - Didier Cuche