The men’s alpine combined was being contested Wednesday night at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. That had a lot of people searching Google asking what alpine combined downhill and alpine combined slalom are.
They are different, yet part of the same event. Here is a quick look at all the alpine skiing events happening at the Olympics.
Downhill
This event is all about speed — get down the course in the fastest time possible.
While there are gates on the outside, they mainly serve as markers to identify the course route. Skiers work to steer clear of touching them since it making contact would slow them down. That’s different from slalom and giant slalom when skiers are focusing more on making tight turns around the gates and, as a result, hit them regularly.
Slalom
The slalom is the shortest course in alpine skiing. It also has the most turns. Skiers have to navigate from one gate to the next. Cutting a turn too close or missing a gate altogether will incur a time penalty which could be the difference between a gold medal and no medal at all. Each skier makes two runs down the slalom course.
Alpine Combined
The alpine combined consists of one downhill run and one slalom run, both of which are completed on the same day. The downhill can also be performed on a super-G course, according to Olympics.com.
Giant Slalom
It’s basically what it sounds like. It’s a longer slalom course and the gates are spaced further apart. This is also a two-run event.
Super-G
Super-G means super giant slalom. It combines the speed of downhill but the technical turning necessary of the giant slalom. The course winds more than the downhill course, but the gates are spaced out more so that the skiers can pick up speed.
Mixed Team
The mixed team competition made its debut in 2018. Skiers go down, side-by-side, on identical slalom courses — men vs. men and women vs. women. After each round, teams are knocked out until the medals are decided.