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Alpine skiing (or downhill skiing)
Alpine Skiing is a recreational activity and
sport involving sliding down snow-covered hills with long, thin
skis attached to each foot. Alpine skiing evolved
from cross-country skiing when ski lift infrastructure was
developed at mountain resorts to tow skiers back to the top of
slopes, thus making it possible to repeatedly enjoy skiing down
steep, long slopes that would be otherwise too tiring to climb
up.
Thus, the sport is popular wherever the
combination of snow, mountain slopes, and a sufficient tourist
infrastructure can be built up, including much of Europe, North
America, and Japan. The main technical challenges
faced by skiers are simply how to control the direction and
speed of their descent. Typically, novice skiers use a technique
called the "snowplough" to turn and stop by pointing one or both
skis inward, but more advanced skiers use more difficult but
more elegant and speedier methods.
These more advanced methods are known as
carving. To carve, a skier rolls their knees but keeps the upper
body and hips faced down the hill, so that only the knees and
feet are turned. This method is far faster and is used by
downhill racers. As skiers gain confidence, they
tackle steeper, longer and more uneven slopes at higher speeds.
In North America the easiest slopes are marked by green circles,
and are typically fairly flat and known as bunny hills. The
mid-level difficulty is that of a blue square, and are more
challenging but not as much as a black diamond.
A black diamond is steeper than a blue square
and usually involves challenging terrain. A double black diamond
is for experts only, and is very difficult to ski. However,
there is no standard for these designations, it is up to each
resort owner to determine.
So, for instance, a blue-square (midlevel) trail
at one ski mountain may be markedly more difficult than a
black-diamond (expert) trail at another mountain. In Europe the
system is based on colour alone, with the level of difficulty
increasing from green to blue to red to black.
2006
Winter Olympic Games
Alpine skiing
Downhill Men:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
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| Silver |
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| Bronze |
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Super-G Men:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
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| Silver |
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| Bronze |
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Combined Men:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
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| Silver |
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| Bronze |
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Giant Slalom Men:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
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| Silver |
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| Bronze |
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Slalom Men:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
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| Silver |
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| Bronze |
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Downhill Women:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
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| Silver |
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| Bronze |
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Super-G Women:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
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| Silver |
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| Bronze |
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Combined Women:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
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| Silver |
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| Bronze |
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Giant Slalom Women
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
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| Silver |
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| Bronze |
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Slalom Women
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
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| Silver |
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| Bronze |
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2002
Winter Olympic Games
Alpine skiing
Downhill Men:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
Fritz Strobl (AUT) |
1:39.13 |
| Silver |
Lasse Kjus (NOR) |
1:39.35 |
| Bronze |
Stephan Eberharter (AUT) |
1:39.41 |
Big favorite Eberharter is beaten by a compatriot and the
all-rounder Kjus.
Super-G Men:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
Kjetil André Aamodt (NOR) |
1:21.58 |
| Silver |
Stephan Eberharter (AUT) |
1:21.68 |
| Bronze |
Andreas Schifferer (AUT) |
1:21.83 |
10 year after his first Olympic title, Aamodt wins his
second Super-G gold and his second gold of the Games.
Combined Men:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
Kjetil André Aamodt (NOR) |
3:17.56 |
| Silver |
Bode Miller (USA) |
3:17.84 |
| Bronze |
Benjamin Raich (AUT) |
3:18.26 |
Miller skies from a 15th place on the downhilll to a
silver medal, leaving less than 3 tenths of a second to
Aamodt, who a record sixth Olympic medal in alpine skiing.
Giant Slalom Men:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
Stephan Eberharter (AUT) |
2:23.28 |
| Silver |
Bode Miller (USA) |
2:24.16 |
| Bronze |
Lasse Kjus (NOR) |
2:24.32 |
Eberharter becomes the oldest man to win an Alpine event.
Slalom Men:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
Jean-Pierre Vidal (FRA) |
1:41.06 |
| Silver |
Sebastien Amiez (FRA) |
1:41.82 |
| Bronze |
Benjamin Raich (AUT) |
1:42.41 |
Pre-race favorite Bode Miller falls off the course in the
second run, and many of the other top competitors struggle
with an extremely challenging course. Britain's Alain Baxter
originally takes the bronze, but loses it after testing
positive for traces of methamphetamine. This occurred
because Baxter had used an American Vicks inhaler, which had
a slightly different chemical content from the legal British
Vicks inhaler.
Downhill Women:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
Carole Montillet (FRA) |
1:39.56 |
| Silver |
Isolde Kostner (ITA) |
1:40.01 |
| Bronze |
Renate Götschl (AUT) |
1:40.39 |
Montillet surprises favorites Kostner, Götschl and Gerg.
Super-G Women:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
Daniela Ceccarelli (ITA) |
1:13.59 |
| Silver |
Janica Kostelic (CRO) |
1:13.64 |
| Bronze |
Karen Putzer (ITA) |
1:13.86 |
The podium is completely filled with surprises as the
favourites fail to medal.
Combined Women:
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
Janica Kostelic (CRO) |
2:43.28 |
| Silver |
Renate Götschl (AUT) |
2:44.77 |
| Bronze |
Martina Ertl (GER) |
2:45.16 |
Konstelic becomes the first person to win four medals at
a single Winter Games.
Giant Slalom Women
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
Janica Kostelic (CRO) |
2:30.01 |
| Silver |
Anja Pärson (SWE) |
2:31.33 |
| Bronze |
Sonja Nef (SUI) |
2:31.67 |
After recovering from a 2001 knee injury, Kostelic wins
the first medal for Croatia at the Winter Games.
Slalom Women
| Medal |
Athlete |
Time |
| Gold |
Janica Kostelic (CRO) |
1:46.10 |
| Silver |
Laure Pequégnot (FRA) |
1:46.17 |
| Bronze |
Anja Pärson (SWE) |
1:47.09 |
Kostelic and Paerson both win medals for the second time
in the Olympics.
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Credits
: Parts of this article are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the
Wikipedia article
"Alpine Skiing".
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