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Winter Olympics: Alpine Skiing
Vancouver, CanadaWinter Olympics: Alpine Skiing Vonn and Miller skiing toward the podium
by John Gettings and Christine Frantz Before it was a sport,
skiing was an important means of transportation. The exact origin
of skiing is unclear, but there is evidence that
Scandinavians were using skis to travel and hunt over snow-covered terrain
as far back as 4,000 years ago.
Organized slalom races were first
introduced in Europe during the 1920s and the first world championship was
organized in 1931. Shortly thereafter, Americans caught on and interest in
this country snowballed throughout the 1930s.
Alpine skiing made its
Olympic debut at the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Games with a men's and women's combined event, featuring a downhill and
two slalom runs. Giant slalom first appeared at the
1952 Oslo Games and the super giant slalom, or super G, was added at the 1988 Calgary Games.
Men and women will
each compete in five Alpine skiing events at Vancouver:
- downhill: a steep descent against time
- slalom: a short race featuring sharp turns around flags
- giant slalom: longer, looser version of the slalom
- super G: slalom race that is a bit faster and longer than the giant
slalom
- combined: one downhill run followed by two slalom runs; fastest
combined time wins
All men's and women's alpine events will take place
at Whistler Creekside, 120 km (84 mi) from Vancouver.
The alpine events of the Games will begin with Men's downhill on Feb. 13, and end with Men's slalom on Feb. 27.
U.S. hopes are high this
year with Lindsey Vonn, who boasts the most World Cup wins of any American woman, and the only American woman to win two World Cup overall titles. For the men, don't rule out 33-year-old veteran Bode Miller. With 31 World Cup wins, Miller is probably competing in his last Olympics, and he is keen to take a medal with him. It's no coincidence that Western European countries at
the foot of the Alps have dominated
this sport—particularly Austria, which has won 101 medals, including
30 gold.
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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