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.
Hermann Maier is an Austrian former World Cup champion alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. Nicknamed the "Herminator", Maier ranks among the greatest alpine ski racers in history, with four overall World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals, and three World Championship titles. His 54 World Cup race victories – 24 super-G, 15 downhills, 14 giant slaloms, and 1 combined – rank third on the men's all-time list behind Ingemar Stenmark's 86 victories and Marcel Hirscher's 67 victories. Until 2023 he held the record for the most points in one season by a male alpine skier, with 2000 points from the 2000 season. From 2000–2013 he also held the title of most points in one season by any alpine skier, until Tina Maze scored 2414 points in the 2013 season.
Franz Klammer is a former champion alpine ski racer from Austria. Klammer dominated the downhill event for four consecutive World Cup seasons (1975–78). He was the gold medalist at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, winning the downhill at Patscherkofel by a margin of 0.33 seconds with a time of 1:45.73. He won 25 World Cup downhills, including four on the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbühel. He also holds the record for the most victories (four) on the full course at Kitzbühel.
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.
Marie-Thérèse Nadig is a retired Swiss alpine skier.
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. 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" or an "Alpine combined", 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.
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, and announced her retirement from World Cup competition.
Aksel Lund Svindal is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer. Born in Lørenskog in Akershus county, Svindal is a two-time overall World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist in super-G at the 2010 Winter Olympics and in downhill at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and a five-time World Champion in downhill, giant slalom, and super combined. With his victory in the downhill in 2013, Svindal became the first male alpine racer to win titles in four consecutive world championships.
Karl Schranz is a former champion alpine ski racer from Austria, one of the best of the 1960s and early 1970s.
Zeno Colò was a champion alpine ski racer from Italy. Born in Cutigliano, Tuscany, he was among the top ski racers of the late 1940s and early 1950s.
The women's alpine skiing combined event was part of the alpine skiing at the 1948 Winter Olympics programme. It was the second appearance of the event. The competition consisted of a downhill race held on Monday, February 2, 1948, and two slalom heats held on Wednesday, February 4, 1948. Twenty-eight alpine skiers from ten nations competed.
Christina Weirather is a retired Liechtensteiner World Cup alpine ski racer. She won a bronze medal in Super-G for Liechtenstein at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Macarena María Simari Birkner is a female skier from Argentina. She has represented Argentina in 2002, 2006, 2010 and the 2014 Winter Olympics, in the Alpine skiing events. She also took part in the 2005 Alpine Skiing World Cup, where she came 20th in the women's combined, and in the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2009. She is the sister of fellow alpine skiers Cristian Simari Birkner and María Belén Simari Birkner. She was in a relationship with British former alpine skier Noel Baxter, with whom she has a child. Simari Birkner has completed all the five Alpine Ski events in both 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympic Games, a record she shares with pluri-medalist Tina Maze.
Gerhard Nenning was an Austrian former alpine skier who competed in the 1964 Winter Olympics and 1968 Winter Olympics.
Norefjell Ski Resort is a mountain ski resort located in Krødsherad, Norway, on the mountainside of Norefjell. The venue for four Olympic alpine skiing events in 1952, it is located northwest of Oslo, 90 minutes away by vehicle.
Alpine skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics was held from 12 to 24 February at Yongpyong Alpine Centre at the Alpensia Sports Park in PyeongChang and at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre in Jeongseon, South Korea.
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.
Austria competed at the 1988 Winter Paralympics in Innsbruck, Austria. 52 competitors from Austria won 44 medals including 20 gold, 10 silver and 14 bronze and finished 2nd in the medal table.
Austria competed at the 1984 Winter Paralympics in Innsbruck, Austria. 59 competitors from Austria won 70 medals including 34 gold, 19 silver and 17 bronze and finished 1st in the medal table.
