Alpine skiing combined

Last updated

Combined is an event in alpine ski racing. The event format has changed within the last 30 years. A traditional combined competition is a two-day event consisting of one run of downhill and two runs of slalom; each discipline takes place on a separate day. The winner is the skier with the fastest aggregate time. Until the 1990s, a complicated point system was used to determine placings in the combined event. Since then, a modified version, called either a "super combined" (with a downhill as the speed event) or an "Alpine combined" (with a super-G as the speed event), has been run as an aggregate time event consisting of two runs: first, a one-run speed event and then only one run of slalom, with both portions held on the same day.

Contents

History

The last Alpine World Ski Championships in 1931 did not include the combined event, but it was added to the program in 1932. Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics was not included until 1936, and the combined was the only event. The combined was one of three medal events at the next Olympics in 1948, along with downhill and slalom. The combined used the results of the only downhill race with two runs of combined slalom. The regular slalom (two runs) was held the following day.

With the introduction of giant slalom at the world championships in 1950, the combined event disappeared from the Olympics for four decades, until re-introduced in 1988. From 1948 through 1980, the Winter Olympics also served as the world championships, with two sets of medals awarded. The world champion in the combined was determined "on paper" by the results of the three races of downhill, giant slalom, and slalom. The top three finishers in the combined event were awarded world championship medals by the FIS, but not Olympic medals from the BBC. This three-race paper method was used from 1954 through 1980; no FIS medals were awarded for the combined in 1950 or 1952. A separate downhill and slalom for the combined event was added to the world championships in 1982, and the Olympics in 2024.

The world championships were held annually from 1931 through 1939, were interrupted by World War II, and resumed as a biennial event at the 1948 Olympics, held in even-numbered years through 1982. They skipped the 1984 Olympics and have been scheduled for odd-numbered years since 1985. (The 1995 event was postponed to 1996, due to lack of snow in southeastern Spain.)

At the Winter Olympics and world championships, the slalom and downhill portions of a combined event are run separately from the regular downhill and slalom events on shorter, and often less demanding, race courses. On the World Cup circuit, traditional combined events have been "paper races," combining skiers' times from a separately scheduled downhill race and slalom race, generally held at the same location over two days. In 2005, the FIS began to replace these "calculated" combineds with super combined events, held on one day, which administrators hope will result in increased participation. [1]

Recent modifications

A modified version, the super combined or Alpine combined, is a speed race (downhill or super-G) and only one run of slalom, with both portions scheduled on the same day. Because slalom courses generally become slower after the first racers, recent changes to the super combined or Alpine combined events have the fastest racers from the speed race start first in the slalom run, which is a revision to the prior structure of starting the slalom run in reverse order, as is done in the second run of a traditional two-run slalom.

World Cup

The first super combined was a World Cup race held in 2005 in Wengen, Switzerland, on January 14; Benjamin Raich of Austria was the winner. The first women's race in the new format was run six weeks later in San Sicario, Italy; won by Croatia's Janica Kostelić on February 27. The 2006 World Cup calendar included three super combineds and just one traditional combined race on the men's side, while the women raced two super combineds and no traditional combineds. Kostelić won the first three women's World Cup super combineds.

Beginning with the 2007 season, the FIS began awarding a fifth discipline-champion "crystal globe" to the points winner of combined races; the 2007 season included five combined races for each gender. [2] Nine out of the ten scheduled combineds use the new super-combined format, the only exception was Kitzbühel, Austria, which continued with the traditional two-run format (K), albeit in a "paper race." The change to super combined expectedly resulted in major disapproval from the slalom specialists, the loudest critic being Ivica Kostelić. Even with the change to a single slalom run, many speed skiers believe the technical racers have the advantage in the super combined. [3] [4]

World Championships and Winter Olympics

The super combined format debuted at the world championships in 2007 in Åre, Sweden, and at the Winter Olympics in 2010 at Whistler, Canada.

Men's World Cup podiums

In the following table men's combined (super combined from 2007) World Cup podiums in the World Cup since first edition in 1976. [5]

Season1st2nd3rd
1975 not awarded
1976 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Walter Tresch Flag of Italy.svg Gustav Thöni Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jim Hunter
1977
not awarded
1978 not contested
1979 not awarded
1980 Flag of the United States.svg Phil Mahre Flag of Liechtenstein.svg Andreas Wenzel Flag of Austria.svg Anton Steiner
1981 Flag of the United States.svg Phil Mahre Flag of Liechtenstein.svg Andreas Wenzel Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Peter Müller
1982 Flag of the United States.svg Phil Mahre Flag of Liechtenstein.svg Andreas Wenzel Flag of Norway.svg Even Hole
1983 Flag of the United States.svg Phil Mahre Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Peter Lüscher Flag of Luxembourg.svg Marc Girardelli
1984 Flag of Liechtenstein.svg Andreas Wenzel Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Pirmin Zurbriggen Flag of Austria.svg Anton Steiner
1985 Flag of Liechtenstein.svg Andreas Wenzel Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Franz Heinzer Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Peter Müller
1986 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Pirmin Zurbriggen Flag of Luxembourg.svg Marc Girardelli Flag of Germany.svg Markus Wasmeier
1987 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Pirmin Zurbriggen Flag of Liechtenstein.svg Andreas Wenzel
1988 Flag of Austria.svg Hubert Strolz Flag of Austria.svg Günther Mader Flag of France.svg Franck Piccard
1989 Flag of Luxembourg.svg Marc Girardelli Flag of Germany.svg Markus Wasmeier Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Pirmin Zurbriggen
1990 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Pirmin Zurbriggen Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Paul Accola Flag of Germany.svg Markus Wasmeier
1991 Flag of Luxembourg.svg Marc Girardelli Flag of Norway.svg Lasse Kjus Flag of Austria.svg Günther Mader
1992 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Paul Accola Flag of Austria.svg Hubert Strolz Flag of Germany.svg Markus Wasmeier
1993 Flag of Luxembourg.svg Marc Girardelli Flag of Austria.svg Günther Mader Flag of Norway.svg Kjetil André Aamodt
1994 Flag of Norway.svg Kjetil André Aamodt Flag of Norway.svg Lasse Kjus Flag of Norway.svg Harald Strand Nilsen
1995 Flag of Luxembourg.svg Marc Girardelli Flag of Norway.svg Harald Strand Nilsen Flag of Norway.svg Lasse Kjus
1996 Flag of Austria.svg Günther Mader Flag of Luxembourg.svg Marc Girardelli Flag of Italy.svg Alessandro Fattori
1997 Flag of Norway.svg Kjetil André Aamodt Flag of Norway.svg Lasse Kjus
Flag of Austria.svg Günther Mader
1998 Flag of Austria.svg Werner Franz Flag of Norway.svg Kjetil André Aamodt
Flag of Austria.svg Hermann Maier
1999 Flag of Norway.svg Kjetil André Aamodt
Flag of Norway.svg Lasse Kjus
Flag of Austria.svg Werner Franz
2000 Flag of Norway.svg Kjetil André Aamodt Flag of Austria.svg Hermann Maier Flag of Sweden.svg Fredrik Nyberg
2001 Flag of Norway.svg Lasse Kjus Flag of Norway.svg Kjetil André Aamodt
Flag of Austria.svg Michael Walchhofer
2002 Flag of Norway.svg Kjetil André Aamodt Flag of Norway.svg Lasse Kjus Flag of Slovenia.svg Andrej Jerman
2003 Flag of the United States.svg Bode Miller Flag of Norway.svg Kjetil André Aamodt
Flag of Austria.svg Michael Walchhofer
2004 Flag of the United States.svg Bode Miller Flag of Austria.svg Benjamin Raich Flag of Norway.svg Lasse Kjus
2005 Flag of Austria.svg Benjamin Raich Flag of Norway.svg Lasse Kjus Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Didier Défago
2006 Flag of Austria.svg Benjamin Raich Flag of the United States.svg Bode Miller
Flag of Austria.svg Michael Walchhofer
2007 Flag of Norway.svg Aksel Lund Svindal Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Marc Berthod Flag of Croatia.svg Ivica Kostelić
2008 Flag of the United States.svg Bode Miller Flag of Croatia.svg Ivica Kostelić Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Daniel Albrecht
2009 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Carlo Janka Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Silvan Zurbriggen Flag of Austria.svg Romed Baumann
2010 Flag of Austria.svg Benjamin Raich Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Carlo Janka Flag of Croatia.svg Ivica Kostelić
2011 Flag of Croatia.svg Ivica Kostelić Flag of Italy.svg Christof Innerhofer Flag of Norway.svg Kjetil Jansrud
2012 Flag of Croatia.svg Ivica Kostelić Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Beat Feuz Flag of Austria.svg Romed Baumann
2013 Flag of Croatia.svg Ivica Kostelić
Flag of France.svg Alexis Pinturault
Flag of France.svg Thomas Mermillod Blondin
2014 Flag of the United States.svg Ted Ligety
Flag of France.svg Alexis Pinturault
Flag of France.svg Thomas Mermillod Blondin
2015 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Carlo Janka Flag of France.svg Alexis Pinturault Flag of France.svg Victor Muffat-Jeandet
2016 Flag of France.svg Alexis Pinturault Flag of France.svg Thomas Mermillod Blondin Flag of Norway.svg Kjetil Jansrud
2017 Flag of France.svg Alexis Pinturault Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Niels Hintermann Flag of Norway.svg Aleksander Aamodt Kilde
2018 Flag of Italy.svg Peter Fill Flag of Norway.svg Kjetil Jansrud Flag of France.svg Victor Muffat-Jeandet
2019 Flag of France.svg Alexis Pinturault Flag of Austria.svg Marco Schwarz Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Mauro Caviezel
2020 Flag of France.svg Alexis Pinturault Flag of Norway.svg Aleksander Aamodt Kilde Flag of Austria.svg Matthias Mayer

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanni Wenzel</span> Liechtensteiner alpine skier

Hannelore (Hanni) Wenzel is a retired Liechtensteiner alpine ski racer. Weirather is a former Olympic, World Cup, and world champion. She won Liechtenstein's first-ever Olympic medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and its first two Olympic gold medals four years later in Lake Placid, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FIS Alpine Ski World Cup</span> Top international circuit of alpine skiing competitions

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. It was soon backed by International Ski Federation president Marc Hodler during the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1966 at Portillo, Chile, and became an official FIS event in the spring of 1967 after the FIS Congress at Beirut, Lebanon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giant slalom</span> Alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline

Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding competitive discipline. It involves racing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Super-G</span> Racing discipline of alpine skiing

Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event during the 1983 season and was added to the official schedule of the World Championships in 1987 and the Winter Olympics in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janica Kostelić</span> Croatian alpine skier

Janica Kostelić is a Croatian former alpine ski racer. She is a four-time Olympic gold medalist. 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 1968 Winter Olympics consisted of six events, held 9–17 February at Chamrousse, southeast of Grenoble, France. Jean-Claude Killy of France won all three men's events, repeating Toni Sailer's triple-gold of 1956. Since Killy's feat, no male alpine ski racer has won three gold medals in a single Olympics..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marlies Schild</span> Austrian alpine skier

Marlies Raich is a retired Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer. She specializes in the technical disciplines of slalom and giant slalom. Schild won four Olympic medals, with silvers in the combined (2006) and slalom and a bronze in slalom (2006). She has seven World Championship medals and has won five World Cup season titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivica Kostelić</span> Croatian alpine skier

Ivica Kostelić is a Croatian former alpine ski racer. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics</span>

Alpine skiing has been contested at every Winter Olympics since 1936, when a combined event was held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ted Ligety</span> American alpine skier

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2007</span> 2007 edition of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships

The FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2007 were the 39th FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, held 2–18 February in Åre, Sweden. Åre previously hosted the world championships in 1954, and often hosts late season World Cup events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kjetil Jansrud</span> Norwegian alpine skier

Kjetil Jansrud is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic champion. He competed in all alpine disciplines apart from slalom, and his best event was the giant slalom where he has six World Cup podiums and an Olympic silver medal. Since 2012, he had concentrated on the speed events, where all but two of his World Cup victories had come. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, he won the super-G and placed third in the downhill. At the World Championships in 2019 at Åre, Jansrud won gold in the downhill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alpine skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Men's combined</span>

The men's super combined competition of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was held at Whistler Creekside in Whistler, British Columbia. The competition was scheduled for February 16, but was postponed due to weather delays in preceding races; it was held five days later on February 21. American athlete Bode Miller won his only Olympic gold medal, Ivica Kostelić of Croatia won silver, and Silvan Zurbriggen of Switzerland took the bronze.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexis Pinturault</span> French alpine skier

Alexis Pinturault is a French World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic medalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beat Feuz</span> Swiss alpine skier

Beat Feuz is a Swiss former World Cup alpine ski racer, specializing in the speed events of downhill and super-G. He is 2017 World champion and 2022 Olympic champion in downhill. In 2021, he won consecutive downhills on the famed Streif at Kitzbühel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mikaela Shiffrin</span> American alpine skier

Mikaela Pauline Shiffrin is an American World Cup alpine skier who has the most World Cup wins of any alpine skier in history and is considered one of the greatest alpine skiers of all time. She is a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist. She is a five-time Overall World Cup champion, a four-time world champion in slalom and a seven-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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauberhorn ski races</span> Alpine skiing competition in Switzerland

The Lauberhorn ski races (Lauberhorn World Cup alpine ski races are among the highest-attended winter sports events in the world, attracting around 30,000 spectators each year. An established attraction is the airshow by the Patrouille Suisse, the aerobatic demonstration team of the Swiss Air Force. The 2016 races were held 15–17 January.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Men's combined</span> Alpine ski discipline year standings

The Men's combined in the 2020 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 3 events, all of which were completed before the season was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A major change was made in the discipline this season due to the recent dominance of slalom specialists in the combined over speed racers. As was previously the case, the first run continued to be the speed discipline. The second run then started in reverse order of finish in the speed run, which allowed the slalom specialists to tackle fresh snow as the first down the hill in the slalom run, while the speed specialists had to face the more challenging rutted snow at the end of the day, as the last skiers of the 30 who qualified for the second run. Instead, the second run was changed to start in the same order as the finish of the speed run, so that the leader after the speed run became the first to race on the fresh slalom course.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Women's combined</span> Alpine ski discipline year standings

The Women's Combined in the 2020 Alpine Skiing World Cup involved two events, although four had been scheduled. A combined at Val d'Isère, France on 22 December 2019 was cancelled due to heavy snowfall, which forced the downhill scheduled for the day before to be shifted back a day, and a combined at La Thuile, Italy on 1 March was also cancelled due to heavy snowfall the challenge in rescheduling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

  1. Rugh, Pete (May 10, 2005). "FIS Spring Calendar Conference Highlights". Ski Racing. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  2. Rugh, Pete (April 17, 2006). "2006-07 World Cup to award super combined crystal globe". Ski Racing. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  3. Breidthardt, Annika (February 13, 2014). "Olympics-Alpine skiing-Downhill champion Mayer scorns super-combined format". Reuters. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  4. McMillan, Kelley (January 15, 2014). "For some ski racers, an advantage before the season even starts". New York Times. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  5. "CUP STANDING ALPINE SKIING WORLD CUP 1976 MEN - COMBINED". fis-ski.com. Retrieved 11 February 2018.