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.
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.
Benjamin Raich is an Austrian former World Cup champion alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. With 14 medals won at Winter Olympics and World Championships, 36 World Cup race victories, one first place and five second places in the World Cup overall ranking, three victories of the slalom World Cup, three victories of the combined World Cup, two victories of the giant slalom World Cup and the highest score of career World Cup points, he is considered among the best alpine racers in World Cup history.
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.
Aksel Lund Svindal is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer.
Christof Innerhofer is an Italian World Cup alpine ski racer, the 2011 world champion in super-G. He competed in all five alpine disciplines and specializes in the speed events of downhill and super-G.
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.
Dominik Paris is an Italian alpine ski racer, who specializes in speed events of downhill and super-G. He was the world champion in super-G, as the gold medalist in 2019 at Åre, Sweden.
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.
The 47th World Cup season began on 27 October 2012, in Sölden, Austria, and concluded on 17 March 2013, at the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. The overall titles were won by Marcel Hirscher of Austria and Tina Maze of Slovenia.
Patrick Küng is a Swiss former World Cup alpine ski racer. He specialised in the speed events of Downhill and Super G and made his World Cup debut at Wengen in 2009.
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.
Matthias Mayer is an Austrian retired World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic champion.
The Men's Giant Slalom competition at the 2013 World Championships ran on Friday, February 15 at 10:00 local time and 13:30, the ninth race of the championships. 99 athletes from 55 countries competed in the main race while 132 athletes from 53 countries competed in the qualification race on Thursday, February 14.
The Alpine Rockfest is an annual event held at Paganella Ski Resort (Andalo) in the Italian Dolomites. The Alpine Rockfest is a televised sports-entertainment event featuring a rock music concert combined with an exhibition ski race consisting of Olympic & World Cup Ski Stars who are invited to compete for the largest cash prize in ski racing. The festival is organized by former head coach of the U.S. Ski Team men’s alpine team Phil McNichol & Italian entrepreneur Marco Dallapiccola, and first took place in 2009.
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde is a Norwegian World Cup alpine ski racer. He competes in four events, with a main focus on super-G and downhill. Kilde hails from Bærum and represents the sports club Lommedalens IL.
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.
The Men's downhill competition at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2019 was held on Saturday, 9 February.
The men's super-G competition in the 2016 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved eight events, including the finals in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
