The men's downhill started yesterday at the Vancouver Olympics, finally after some warm weather delayed the start and what a great race it was, with Bode Miller from the USA getting the fastest time early on then some great skiing by Aksel Svindal from Norway and then the winning run by Didier Defago from Switzerland.
There are different types of alpine skiing so I thought I would cover this off.
Firstly the downhill, probably the fastest and longest run down the mountain at speeds of up to 140kph on the fastest slopes, with the course laid out down the mountain normally about 1100 meters. This is fast and furious and they have one run with the fastest time the winner, so it is all flat out from the start gate.
The slalom course is a shorter course at about 180 meters with more precise turns around the gates, wrong side of the gates and the skier either walks back up to go the correct side or is disqualified. Two runs and the times are added together to give a fastest total time the winner, so if you have to walk back up, that would be over as far as a chance of winning.
Giant slalom is a longer course with longer and wider turns to make around the gates, so same applies as slalom, you have to get the correct side of the gates and two runs combined to make the total winning time.
This combines the downhill with the giant slalom, with one run and the fastest wins, the course is not as long as the downhill and still has the gates to get around.
This is the downhill and the short tight slalom course as two races with the times combined, one run at each and the two times are added to get the fastest winning time that also gets around the gates in the slalom run.
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