Alpine skiing
by Adrianna Hill
Alpine skiing information
Pictures:
The history of Alpine Skiing
Alpine Skiing first appeared in the fourth Olympics in Garmin-Partenkirchen, Germany, 1936. For the first 17 Olympics Australia has got the most medals for this event, and Switzerland right behind. Skiing has an ancient history and is often dated to the 1850s when Norwegian legend Sondre Norheim popularised skis with curved sides, bindings with stiff heel bands made of willow.
Equipment: Reinforced plastic boots, gloves made out of leather or synthetic material, ski goggles, helmet, poles, Skis, Skin-tight suit, and bindings.
Rules: The sport is played on a mountain and is a competition so there is 1 player. There is different Alpine events, Super-combined, Slalom, Giant Slalom, Super-G, Combined events and Downhill. Each has different courses and how to play. Downhill is when the races are designed to be the longest and ultimately generate the highest speed from the skiers, only one run and the skier with the fastest time wins. Slalom is traditionally the shortest race and is comprised of close turns or gates. Each competitor makes one run, then the course is reset on the same slope, but, with position of the gates changed. The same day, those skiers qualifying for the second run make their run. The fastest combined times of the two runs is the winner. Giant slalom is similar to regular slalom but there is fewer gates and wider turns are needed to navigate through it. The same as slalom, skiers make two runs down two different courses on the same slope on the same day. The winner is determined the same way as slalom. Combined events is when it includes one Downhill run followed by two slalom runs. All times are added together and the fastest time determines the winner. The downhill and the slalom of the combined event are run on different, shorter courses than the regular downhill and slalom events. Super combined includes a single slalom race and either a shorter than normal downhill run or a super G race. In the super combined, the times of each race are added together and the fastest time determines the winner.
Medals and medalists
Austria has 3 gold, 4 silver, and 2 bronze medals. The medalists for Austria are Kathrin Zettel, Anna Fenninger, Mario Matt, Matthias Mayer, Nicole Hosp, Marcel Hirscher, and Marlies Schild. The United States of America have 2 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze, the medalist are Ted Ligety, Mikaela Shiffrin, Andrew Weibrecht, Julia Mancuso, and Bode Miller. Switzerland has 2 gold, and 1 bronze, and the medalists are Dominique Gisin, Sandro Viletta,and Lara Gut. Slovenia won 2 gold, and the medalist is Tina Maze. Germany got 1 gold 1 silver and 1 bronze, the medalists are Maria Hoefl-Riesch, and Viktoria Rebensburg. Norway won 1 gold and 2 bronze, the medalist are Kjetil Jansrud, and Henrik Kristoffersen. Italy has 1 silver and one bronze, and the medalist is Christof Innerhofer. France also won 1 silver and 1 bronze, and the medalist for this state are Steve Missillier, and Alexis Pinturault. Croatia has won 1 silver, and the medalist is Ivica Kostelic. And last is Canada with 1 bronze, and that medalist is Jan Hudec.
Sources: Websites: http://skiing.about.com/od/downhillskiing/f/alpinesking.htm
http://www.sochi2014.com/en/alpine-skiing-medals
www.olympic.org/alpine-skiing-equipment-and-history
http://i.nbcolympics.com/alpine-skiing/insidethissport/history/newsid=300006.html