Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G.
Janica Kostelić is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and four-time Olympic gold medalist from Croatia. In addition to the Olympics, she won five gold medals at the World Championships. In World Cup competition, she won thirty individual races, three overall titles, three slalom titles, and four combined titles. Kostelic's accomplishments in professional skiing have led some commentators, writers, and fellow ski racers to regard her as the greatest female ski racer of all time.
Alpine skiing at the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, California consisted of six events. Competitions took place at Squaw Peak, KT-22 and Papoose Peak.
India sent a delegation to compete at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy from 10–26 February 2006. This was the nation's seventh appearance in a Winter Olympic Games. The Indian delegation consisted of four athletes, two in alpine skiing, one in cross-country skiing, and one in luge. Their best performance in any event was 25th by luger Shiva Keshavan in the men's singles.
Ireland sent a delegation to compete at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy from 10–26 February 2006. This was Ireland's fourth appearance at a Winter Olympic Games. The Irish delegation to Turin consisted of four athletes, two alpine skiers, one cross-country skier, and one skeleton racer. The best performance by any Irish competitor at these Olympics was 20th, by David Connolly in the men's skeleton race.
The Republic of Macedonia sent a delegation to compete at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy from 10–26 February 2006. This was Macedonia's third appearance at a Winter Olympic Games. The delegation consisted of three athletes; Ivana Ivčevska and Gjorgi Markovski in alpine skiing, and Darko Damjanovski in cross-country skiing. Their best performance in any event was 40th, by Ivčevska in the women's giant slalom.
Alpine skiing has been contested at every Winter Olympics since 1936, when a combined event was held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
Combined is an event in alpine ski racing. A traditional combined competition consists of one run of downhill and two runs of slalom, each discipline runs on separate days. The winner is the skier with the fastest aggregate time. A modified version, the super combined, is a speed race and only one run of slalom, with both portions scheduled on the same day.
The 2nd World Cup season began in January in West Germany and concluded in April in the US Jean-Claude Killy of France repeated as the overall champion, and announced his retirement from World Cup competition. Nancy Greene of Canada repeated as the women's World Cup overall champion.
The last event of the women's alpine skiing, the giant slalom, took place on Friday, 24 February. Kostelić was a favourite once again, as she was defending Olympic champion, but Swede Anja Pärson led the World Cup and was defending World Champion of the event. Kostelić was second in the World Cup standing, however, while Austrian Kathrin Zettel was third.
Francisco "Paquito" Fernández Ochoa was a World Cup alpine ski racer from Spain. Born in Madrid and raised north of the city in Cercedilla, he was the eldest of eight children whose father ran a ski school. Paquito raced in all of the alpine disciplines and specialized in slalom.
Maria Höfl-Riesch is a former German World Cup alpine ski racer. She is a three-time Olympic champion, two-time world champion, and an overall World Cup champion.
Elisabeth Görgl is a retired World Cup alpine ski racer from Austria.
Lebanon sent a delegation to compete at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from 12–28 February 2010. This was Lebanon's 15th appearance at a Winter Olympic Games. The Lebanese team consisted of three alpine skiers. Lebanon has never won a medal at a Winter Olympics, and their best performance in Vancouver was 37th in the women's super-G by Chirine Njeim; Ghassan Achi failed to post a result in either of his races, and Jacky Chamoun finished 54th in her only race.
Federica Brignone is an Italian World Cup alpine ski racer. She competes in all alpine disciplines, with a focus on giant slalom and super-G. Brignone won the World Cup overall title in 2020, becoming the first Italian female to achieve this feat. She is also an Olympic and World Championship medalist. She competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Women's giant slalom, winning a silver medal, and Women's combined, winning a bronze medal.
Uzbekistan sent a delegation to compete at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, from 12–28 February 2010. This was the country's fifth appearance in a Winter Olympic Games. The delegation consisted of three athletes: Kseniya Grigoreva and Oleg Shamaev in alpine skiing, and Anastasia Gimazetdinova in figure skating. None of the Uzbekistani competitors won a medal at these Olympics.
Maria Kirkova is a Bulgarian female skier. She was the flagbearer for Bulgaria and a competitor during the 2014 Winter Olympics and took part in the Alpine skiing events at all four Winter Olympics between 2006 and 2018 as well as the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in 2003 and six championship from 2007 to 2017.
Celina Seghi was an Italian alpine skier. Born in Abetone, Tuscany, she was the youngest child in a family of nine and earned her first Italian championship medal, a bronze in the slalom, in 1934.
Marion Posch is an Italian snowboarder.
