Slalom is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline, involving skiing between poles or gates. These are spaced more closely than those in giant slalom, super giant slalom and downhill, necessitating quicker and shorter turns. Internationally, the sport is contested at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, and at the Olympic Winter Games.
Skiing can be a means of transport, a recreational activity or a competitive winter sport in which the participant uses skis to glide on snow. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International Ski Federation (FIS).
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.
Canoe slalom is a competitive sport with the aim to navigate a decked canoe or kayak through a course of hanging downstream or upstream gates on river rapids in the fastest time possible. It is one of the two kayak and canoeing disciplines at the Summer Olympics, and is referred to by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as Canoe/Kayak Slalom. The other Olympic canoeing discipline is canoe sprint. Wildwater canoeing is a non-Olympic paddlesport.
Alberto Tomba is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Italy. He was the dominant technical skier in the late 1980s and 1990s. At 6 ft tall and 90 kg, his powerful build was a contrast to the lighter, more traditional technical skiers who prioritised agility over muscle. Tomba was able to take advantage of the introduction of spring-loaded ski gates which replaced the older, solid gates in the early 1980s by using his power to maintain a faster, more direct line through courses. Tomba won three Olympic gold medals, two World Championships, and nine World Cup season titles: four in slalom, four in giant slalom, and one overall title. He was popularly called Tomba la Bomba.
Tina Maze is a retired Slovenian World Cup alpine ski racer.
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.
Deborah Compagnoni is an Italian former Alpine skier who won three gold medals at the 1992, 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics.
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 run 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.
Inger Bjørnbakken, married Weimer is a former Norwegian alpine skier.
Fabien Lefèvre is a French slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 1998]. As a permanent resident of the United States, he has competed for his country of residence since 2013. He represented France until 2011. He won two medals at the Summer Olympics in the K1 event with a silver in 2008 and a bronze in 2004.
Claude Neveu is a retired French slalom canoeist who competed from the late 1940s to the late 1950s. He won six medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with five golds and a silver.
Éric Biau is a French slalom canoeist who competed from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. He won seven medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with a gold, three silvers and three bronzes.
Denis Gargaud Chanut is a French slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level in C1 since 2004. Between 2009 and 2011 he also competed in the C2 category alongside Fabien Lefèvre. He won a gold medal in the C1 event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Marcel Hirscher is an Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer. Hirscher made his World Cup debut in March 2007. He competes primarily in slalom and giant slalom, as well as combined and occasionally in super G. Winner of a record eight consecutive World Cup titles, Hirscher has also won 11 medals at the Alpine Skiing World Championships, seven of them gold, a silver medal in slalom at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and two gold medals in the combined and giant slalom at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Due to his record number of overall titles, many years of extreme dominance of both slalom and giant slalom and of the men's overall ranking, he is considered by many, including his rivals Henrik Kristoffersen, Kjetil Jansrud and Alexis Pinturault, to be the best alpine skier in history.
Mikaela Pauline Shiffrin is an American two-time Olympic gold medalist and World Cup alpine skier. She is the current three-time reigning Overall World Cup champion, the four-time reigning 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.
Heinz-Jürgen Steinschulte is a former West German slalom canoeist who competed from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s.
Wolfgang Wenzel is a former West German slalom canoeist who competed from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.
The 49th World Cup season began on 25 October 2014, in Sölden, Austria, and concluded on 22 March 2015 at the World Cup finals in Meribel, France. The defending overall champions from the 2014 season - Marcel Hirscher and Anna Fenninger, both of Austria, defended their titles successfully. The season was interrupted by the World Championships in February, in the United States at Vail/Beaver Creek, Colorado. Combined events were not awarded as a discipline trophy.
