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.
Ivica Kostelić is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Croatia. He specialized in slalom and combined, but was also one of the few alpine World Cup ski racers able to score points in all disciplines. He is the brother of skiing champion Janica Kostelić. In his career he was coached by his father Ante Kostelić, as well as by Kristian Ghedina and Tomislav Krstičević.
Andorra sent a delegation to compete at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, from 10–26 February 2006. The Andorran delegation consisted of three competitors, two in alpine skiing and one in cross-country skiing. Roger Vidosa provided Andorra's best performance at these Games, with a 27th-place finish in the men's slalom alpine skiing event. As of these Games, Andorra has never won an Olympic medal.
Alpine skiing has been contested at every Winter Olympics since 1936, when a combined event was held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
Theodore Sharp Ligety is a retired American alpine ski racer, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and an entrepreneur, having cofounded Shred Optics. Ligety won the combined event at the 2006 Olympics in Turin and the giant slalom race at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. He is also a five-time World Cup champion in giant slalom. Ligety won the gold medal in the giant slalom at the 2011 World Championships. He successfully defended his world title in giant slalom in 2013 in Schladming, Austria, where he also won an unexpected gold medal in the super-G and a third gold medal in the super combined.
The men's combined was held on Tuesday, 14 February, two days after the downhill. The combined competition, as the name suggests, is a combination where the times in the downhill racing and the slalom events are added. One run of downhill and two runs of slalom are used to determine overall ranking in the combined event. All three runs were held in a single day.
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 slalom competition is shorter than the giant slalom, but is otherwise similar in emphasizing maneuverability. Slalom has been a part of all the Winter Olympics since 1936, although it was a part of the alpine combination that year. Only the downhill event has a longer history at the Winter Olympics. The men's slalom took place on 25 February and was the last of the Olympic alpine skiing competitions.
Mario Matt is an Austrian former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist.
The men's slalom competition of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was held at Whistler Creekside in Whistler, British Columbia, on February 27, 2010.
Gauthier de Tessières is a World Cup alpine ski racer from France, and has competed in two Winter Olympics and five World Championships. He made his breakthrough on the Alpine Skiing World Cup in a giant slalom in Val-d'Isère in December 2008, where after finishing 30th in the first run to narrowly qualify for the second run, he worked his way up to finish third overall, bettering his previous World Cup personal best of 15th. He won the silver medal in the super-G at the 2013 World Championships, after being added to the French team as an injury replacement. De Tessières announced his retirement from competition in January 2014 after he was not selected for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Alexis Pinturault is a French World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic medalist.
Mikaela Pauline Shiffrin is an American two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and World Cup alpine skier. She is a four-time Overall World Cup champion, a four-time world champion in slalom, and a six-time winner of the World Cup discipline title in that event. Shiffrin is the youngest slalom champion in Olympic alpine skiing history, at 18 years and 345 days.
The 48th World Cup season began on 26 October 2013, in Sölden, Austria, and concluded on 16 March 2014 at the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. The defending overall champions from the 2013 season were Marcel Hirscher of Austria and Tina Maze of Slovenia. The overall titles were won by Hirscher and Anna Fenninger, also of Austria. The season was interrupted by the 2014 Winter Olympics that took place from 7 to 23 February in Sochi, Russia, with the alpine events at Rosa Khutor.
Henrik Kristoffersen is a Norwegian World Cup alpine ski racer, World Champion, and Olympic medalist. He specializes in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom.
Morocco competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The country's participation at Vancouver marked its sixth appearance at a Winter Olympics since its debut at the 1968 Games; no athlete has ever won any medals. The 2010 delegation consisted of two athletes competing in alpine skiing, Adam Lamhamedi and Kenza Tazi, who were accompanied by Adam's brother Sami and four officials. Adam Lamhamedi was also the nation's flag bearer in the Parade of Nations, and at the closing ceremony. Neither skier finished on a medal podium.
From August 19, 2013 to March 23, 2014, the following skiing events took place at various locations around the world.
The men's combined competition of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics was held on 13 February 2018 at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre and the Yongpyong Alpine Centre at the Alpensia Sports Park in PyeongChang.
