Slalom skiing facts for kids

Tonje Sekse competes in the slalom

Slalom is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline, involving skiing between poles or gates. These are spaced more closely than those in giant slalom, super giant slalom and downhill, necessitating quicker and shorter turns. Internationally, the sport is contested at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, and at the Olympic Winter Games.

History

Nathalie Eklund skis slalom at Trysil, Norway in 2011

The term slalom comes from the Morgedal/Seljord dialect of the Norwegian word "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 metres (33 ft) high), et cetera. Uvyrdslåm was a trail with several obstacles. A Norwegian military downhill competition in 1767 included racing downhill among trees "without falling or breaking skis". Sondre Norheim and other skiers from Telemark practiced uvyrdslåm or "disrespectful/reckless downhill" where they raced downhill in difficult and untested terrain (i.e., off piste). The 1866 "ski race" in Oslo was a combined cross-country, jumping and slalom competition. In the slalom participants were allowed use poles for braking and steering, and they were given points for style (appropriate skier posture). During the late 19th century Norwegian skiers participated in all branches (jumping, slalom, and cross-country) often with the same pair of skis. Slalom and variants of slalom were often referred to as hill races. Around 1900 hill races were abandoned in the Oslo championships at Huseby and Holmenkollen. Mathias Zdarsky's development of the Lilienfeld binding helped change hill races into a specialty of the Alps region.

The rules for the modern slalom were developed by Arnold Lunn in 1922 for the British National Ski Championships, and adopted for alpine skiing at the 1936 Winter Olympics. Under these rules 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, rather than on both time and style.

Course

Example of a slalom course, whereby the skier passes through pairs of poles (gates) of alternating colors.

A course is constructed by laying out a series of gates, formed by alternating pairs of red and blue poles. The skier must pass between the two poles forming the gate, with the tips of both skis and the skier's feet passing between the poles. A course has 55 to 75 gates for men and 40 to 60 for women. The vertical drop for a men's course is 180 to 220 m (591 to 722 ft) and measures slightly less for women. The gates are arranged in a variety of configurations to challenge the competitor.

Because the offsets are relatively small in slalom, ski racers 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 outside hand.) Racers employ a variety of protective equipment, including shin pads, hand guards, helmets and face guards.

Clearing the gates

Traditionally, bamboo poles were used for gates, the rigidity of which forced skiers to maneuver their entire body around each gate. In the early 1980s, rigid poles were replaced by hard plastic poles, hinged at the base. The hinged gates require, according to FIS rules, only that the skis and boots of the skier go around each gate.

The new gates allow a more direct path down a slalom course through the process of cross-blocking or shinning the gates. Cross-blocking is a technique in which the legs go around the gate with the upper body inclined toward, or even across, the gate; in this case the racer's outside pole and shinguards hit the gate, knocking it down and out of the way. Cross-blocking is done by pushing the gate down with the arms, hands, or shins. By 1989, most of the top technical skiers in the world had adopted the cross-block technique.

Equipment

Bottom: 2013 FIS legal slalom race skis, top: giant slalom race skis from 2006

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 centimetres (79.9–81.5 in) in the 1980s and 1990s but by the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, the majority of competitors were using skis measuring 160 cm (63.0 in) or less.

The downside of the shorter skis was that athletes found that recoveries were more difficult with a smaller platform underfoot. Out of 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 (61.0 in) for men and 150 cm (59.1 in) for women, but was increased to 165 cm (65.0 in) for men and 155 cm (61.0 in) for women for the 2003–2004 season.

The equipment minimums and maximums imposed by the International Ski Federation (FIS) have created a backlash from skiers, suppliers, and fans. The main objection is that the federation is regressing the equipment, and hence the sport, by two decades.

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.

Men's slalom World Cup podiums

In the following table men's slalom World Cup podiums in the World Cup since first season in 1967.

Season	1st	2nd	3rd
1967	Jean-Claude Killy	Guy Perillat	Heinrich Messner
1968	Dumeng Giovanoli	Jean-Claude Killy	Patrick Russel
1969	Alain Penz Alfred Matt Jean-Noel Augert Patrick Russel
1970	Alain Penz	Jean-Noël Augert Patrick Russel
1971	Jean-Noël Augert	Gustav Thöni	Tyler Palmer
1972	Jean-Noël Augert	Andrzej Bachleda	Roland Thöni
1973	Gustav Thöni	Christian Neureuther	Jean-Noël Augert
1974	Gustav Thöni	Christian Neureuther	Johann Kniewasser
1975	Ingemar Stenmark	Gustav Thöni	Piero Gros
1976	Ingemar Stenmark	Piero Gros	Gustav Thöni Hans Hinterseer
1977	Ingemar Stenmark	Klaus Heidegger	Paul Frommelt
1978	Ingemar Stenmark	Klaus Heidegger	Phil Mahre
1979	Ingemar Stenmark	Phil Mahre	Christian Neureuther
1980	Ingemar Stenmark	Bojan Križaj	Christian Neureuther
1981	Ingemar Stenmark	Phil Mahre	Bojan Križaj Steve Mahre
1982	Phil Mahre	Ingemar Stenmark	Steve Mahre
1983	Ingemar Stenmark	Stig Strand	Andreas Wenzel
1984	Marc Girardelli	Ingemar Stenmark	Franz Gruber
1985	Marc Girardelli	Paul Frommelt	Ingemar Stenmark
1986	Rok Petrovič	Bojan Križaj Ingemar Stenmark Paul Frommelt
1987	Bojan Križaj	Ingemar Stenmark	Armin Bittner
1988	Alberto Tomba	Günther Mader	Felix McGrath
1989	Armin Bittner	Alberto Tomba	Marc Girardelli Ole Kristian Furuseth
1990	Armin Bittner	Alberto Tomba Ole Kristian Furuseth
1991	Marc Girardelli	Ole Kristian Furuseth	Rudolf Nierlich
1992	Alberto Tomba	Paul Accola	Finn Christian Jagge
1993	Thomas Fogdö	Alberto Tomba	Thomas Stangassinger
1994	Alberto Tomba	Thomas Stangassinger	Jure Košir
1995	Alberto Tomba	Michael Tritscher	Jure Košir
1996	Sebastien Amiez	Alberto Tomba	Thomas Sykora
1997	Thomas Sykora	Thomas Stangassinger	Finn Christian Jagge
1998	Thomas Sykora	Thomas Stangassinger	Hans Petter Buraas
1999	Thomas Stangassinger	Jure Košir	Finn Christian Jagge
2000	Kjetil André Aamodt	Ole Kristian Furuseth	Matjaž Vrhovnik
2001	Benjamin Raich	Heinz Schilchegger	Mario Matt
2002	Ivica Kostelić	Bode Miller	Jean-Pierre Vidal
2003	Kalle Palander	Ivica Kostelić	Rainer Schönfelder
2004	Rainer Schönfelder	Kalle Palander	Benjamin Raich
2005	Benjamin Raich	Rainer Schönfelder	Manfred Pranger
2006	Giorgio Rocca	Kalle Palander	Benjamin Raich
2007	Benjamin Raich	Mario Matt	Jens Byggmark
2008	Manfred Mölgg	Jean-Baptiste Grange	Reinfried Herbst
2009	Jean-Baptiste Grange	Ivica Kostelić	Julien Lizeroux
2010	Reinfried Herbst	Julien Lizeroux	Silvan Zurbriggen
2011	Ivica Kostelić	Jean-Baptiste Grange	André Myhrer
2012	André Myhrer	Ivica Kostelić	Marcel Hirscher
2013	Marcel Hirscher	Felix Neureuther	Ivica Kostelić
2014	Marcel Hirscher	Felix Neureuther	Henrik Kristoffersen
2015	Marcel Hirscher	Felix Neureuther	Alexander Khoroshilov
2016	Henrik Kristoffersen	Marcel Hirscher	Felix Neureuther
2017	Marcel Hirscher	Henrik Kristoffersen	Manfred Mölgg
2018	Marcel Hirscher	Henrik Kristoffersen	André Myhrer
2019	Marcel Hirscher	Clément Noël	Daniel Yule
2020	Henrik Kristoffersen	Clément Noël	Daniel Yule
2021	Marco Schwarz	Clément Noël	Ramon Zenhäusern
2022	Henrik Kristoffersen	Manuel Feller	Atle Lie McGrath
2023	Lucas Braathen	Henrik Kristoffersen	Ramon Zenhäusern
2024	Manuel Feller	Linus Straßer	Timon Haugan

See also

In Spanish: Slalom para niños