Slalom skiing
Encyclopedia
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.
/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.
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 outside 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.
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.
" 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.
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.
Alpine skiing
Alpine skiing is the sport of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. Alpine skiing can be contrasted with skiing using free-heel bindings: Ski mountaineering and nordic skiing – such as cross-country; ski jumping; and Telemark. In competitive alpine skiing races four...
discipline, involving skiing between poles (gates) spaced much closer together than in Giant Slalom
Giant Slalom skiing
Giant slalom is an alpine skiing discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles spaced at a greater distance to each other than in slalom but less than in super G....
, Super-G
Super Giant Slalom skiing
The Super Giant Slalom is an Alpine skiing discipline. It is usually referred to as Super G and is a "speed" event, along with the faster Downhill event; the Giant Slalom and Slalom events are known as the "technical" disciplines.-History:...
or Downhill
Downhill
Downhill is an alpine skiing discipline. The rules for the Downhill were originally developed by Sir Arnold Lunn for the 1921 British National Ski Championships....
, thereby causing quicker and shorter turns.
Origins
The word "Slalom" is from the MorgedalMorgedal
Morgedal, of the municipality of Kviteseid in the county of Telemark Norway, is called the cradle of skiing.Morgedal, Norway is a village whose most famous residents were Sondre Norheim, known to be the father of modern skiing plus Torjus Hemmestveit and Mikkjel Hemmestveit...
/Seljord
Seljord
Seljord is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Vest-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Seljord...
dialect of Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
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
Telemark
is a county in Norway, bordering Vestfold, Buskerud, Hordaland, Rogaland and Aust-Agder. The county administration is in Skien. Until 1919 the county was known as Bratsberg amt.-Location:...
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.
Proper Definition
Slalom and Giant SlalomGiant Slalom skiing
Giant slalom is an alpine skiing discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles spaced at a greater distance to each other than in slalom but less than in super G....
make up the "technical events" in alpine ski racing. This category separates them from the "speed events" like Super-G
Super Giant Slalom skiing
The Super Giant Slalom is an Alpine skiing discipline. It is usually referred to as Super G and is a "speed" event, along with the faster Downhill event; the Giant Slalom and Slalom events are known as the "technical" disciplines.-History:...
and Downhill
Downhill
Downhill is an alpine skiing discipline. The rules for the Downhill were originally developed by Sir Arnold Lunn for the 1921 British National Ski Championships....
.
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
Sidecut
The sidecut is a general term for the inner curvature of a ski, snowboard, or skiboard. The sidecut depth is measured as the distance between the waist of the board and an imaginary straight line that strikes both of the contact points at the tip and tail. The sidecut radius is the radial...
) 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
International Ski Federation
The International Ski Federation, known by its name in French, Fédération Internationale de Ski is the main international organisation for ski sports...
(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 outside 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
International Ski Federation
The International Ski Federation, known by its name in French, Fédération Internationale de Ski is the main international organisation for ski sports...
. 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
The rules for the modern slalom were developed by Sir Arnold LunnArnold Lunn
Sir Arnold Henry Moore Lunn was a famous skier, mountaineer and writer. He was knighted for "services to British Skiing and Anglo-Swiss relations" in 1952.He was born in Madras, India and died in London.-Early life:...
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
In the early 1980s, bamboo poles were replaced by hard plastic hinged poles. The new gates allowed skiers to take a much more direct path down a slalom course through the process of "cross-blockingCross-blocking
Cross-blocking is the method that a slalom ski-racer uses to draw his body's center of gravity closer to the skiing and increase his speed. This is done by diverting gates with his outer hand or arm...
" 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
With the innovation of "shaped" skis around the turn of the 21st century, equipment used for slalom in international competition changed drastically. World CupAlpine skiing World Cup
The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is the top international circuit of alpine skiing competitions, launched in 1966 by a group of ski racing friends and experts which included French journalist Serge Lang and the alpine ski team directors from France and the USA...
skiers commonly skied on slalom skis at a length of 203-207 centimeters in the 1980s and 1990s but by the 2002 Winter Olympics
2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event that was celebrated in February 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Approximately 2,400 athletes from 77 nations participated in 78 events in fifteen disciplines, held throughout...
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
International Ski Federation
The International Ski Federation, known by its name in French, Fédération Internationale de Ski is the main international organisation for ski sports...
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
Bode Miller
Samuel Bode Miller is an American alpine ski racer. He is an Olympic and World Championship gold medalist, a two-time overall World Cup champion in 2005 and 2008, and is generally considered the greatest American alpine skier of all time...
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
- 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
- DownhillDownhillDownhill is an alpine skiing discipline. The rules for the Downhill were originally developed by Sir Arnold Lunn for the 1921 British National Ski Championships....
- Super G Super Giant Slalom skiingThe Super Giant Slalom is an Alpine skiing discipline. It is usually referred to as Super G and is a "speed" event, along with the faster Downhill event; the Giant Slalom and Slalom events are known as the "technical" disciplines.-History:...
- Giant Slalom
- Alpine skiing combinedAlpine skiing combinedCombined is an alpine skiing event. Although not technically a discipline of its own, it is sometimes referred to as a fifth alpine discipline, along with downhill, super G, giant slalom, and slalom.-Traditional & Super-Combined:...
- U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association - National governing body for Olympic skiing and snowboarding in the United States
- Skiing and Skiing TopicsSkiingSkiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....