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.

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.

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.

Samuel Bode Miller (pronounced /ˈboʊdiː/; born October 12, 1977) is a World Cup alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team. He is an Olympic and World Championship gold medalist, a two-time overall World Cup champion in 2005 and 2008, and can therefore be considered the most successful American alpine ski racer. Miller is also considered one of the greatest World Cup racers of all time with 33 victories, and is one of five other elite members to win World Cup events in all five disciplines.

In November 2004, Miller became the fifth and so far last man to win World Cup races in all five disciplines: slalom, giant slalom, Super-G, downhill, and combined − and today he is the only one with five or more victories in each discipline.

In 2008, Miller and Lindsey Vonn won the overall World Cup titles for the first U.S. sweep in 25 years.

He has won five medals in the Winter Olympics, the most of any U.S. skier − two silvers (giant slalom and combined) in Salt Lake City 2002, and a gold (super combined), a silver (Super G) and a bronze (downhill) in Vancouver 2010. Miller is one of five skiers who have won Olympic medals in four different disciplines, matching the feats of Kjetil André Aamodt and female racers Anja Pärson, Janica Kostelić, and Katja Seizinger.

Jakub Krako (born July 7, 1990) is a visually impaired alpine skier who competed for Slovakia at the 2010 Winter Paralympics. He won three gold medals and a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Paralympics.