Alpine skiing at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games will be contested from Feb. 11-24, with medals awarded in eleven different events.
Sochi in review
Room for Two
In an Olympic first in any alpine skiing event, the women’s downhill ended in a tie for gold. Dominique Gisin of Switzerland and Tina Maze of Slovenia each crossed the finish line in 1:41:57 to the surprise of Olympic alpine fans all over the world.
Maze arrived at the Olympic Games after amassing a monster 2013 World Cup season, crushing stats and looking like a world beater. After opening Sochi with a fourth-place finish in the super-combined, Olympic gold for the Slovenian was in doubt. The tie for downhill gold was followed by a fifth place finish in the Super-G, but she again bounced back and collected her second gold in Sochi in the giant slalom, her signature event. Maze was the only alpine skier, man or woman, to leave Sochi with two gold medals.
Bode’s record-setting tie for bronze
Team USA’s Bode Miller has insisted his passion has never been based in the pursuit of Olympic medals but instead the search for the purest, fastest line from the top to the bottom of a race course. As that search continued in his fifth Olympic Games in Sochi, Miller found himself on the podium for the sixth time in his career, in a tie for bronze with Canada’s Jan Hudec in the men’s Super-G. The bronze medal performance made Miller the oldest Olympic alpine medalist in history. U.S. teammate Andrew Weibrecht also made it onto the Super-G podium using skies on loan from Miller, as well as course intel from the Olympic vet, to take home silver after overcoming a seemingly insurmountable string of injuries prior to the Games.
Ted Ligety triumphs
U.S. alpine champ Ted Ligety won his first Olympic gold medal at the 2006 Torino Olympics. In 2010, Ligety showed up in Vancouver ready to stake his claim on the mountain, but ultimately left Canada empty-handed while questioning his own efforts. Entering his third Olympics after winning three gold medals at the 2013 World Championships, Ligety was looking for vindication, and he got it, winning gold in the men’s giant slalom.
Shiffrin’s in (the record books)
At 18, Team USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin became the youngest alpine gold medalist in Olympic history when she threw down two slalom runs that landed her on top of the podium in Sochi. It was also the first time a U.S. skier had won slalom gold since Phil Mahre won in Sarajevo in 1984, and the first for a U.S. woman since 1972 when Barbara Cochran won gold in Sapporo.
Competition format
Skiers will compete across the following eleven events, with gold, silver and bronze medals awarded to the top three finishers.
- Men’s downhill
- Men’s Super-G
- Men’s giant slalom
- Men’s slalom
- Men’s alpine combined
- Women’s downhill
- Women’s Super-G
- Women’s giant slalom
- Women’s slalom
- Women’s alpine combined
- Team event
Venue
Alpine skiing events will be held in two locations within the Taebaek Mountains of PyeongChang during the 2018 Olympic Games. Yongpyong Alpine Centre will host the giant slalom, slalom and team event, while Jeongseon Alpine Centre will serve as the slopes for downhill, Super-G and the combined.
Athletes to watch
Men
Marcel Hirscher, Austria
Peter Fill, Italy
Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway Henrik Kristoffersen, Norway
Ted Ligety, United States Bode Miller, United States Steven Nyman, United States Andrew Weibrecht, United States
Women
Tina Weirather, Liechtenstein
Lara Gut, Switzerland Wendy Holdener, Switzerland Julia Mancuso, United States Mikaela Shiffrin, United States Resi Stiegler, United States Lindsey Vonn, United States