SUPER COMBINED:  

The newest of the World Cup events, Super Combined melds one run of downhill and one run of slalom on the same day to showcase the skills of the all-around racers, able to handle both the speed and technical aspects of the sport.

The Super Combined not only tests a racer’s versatility, but also his or her stamina, with often less than two hours between the conclusion of the downhill leg and the start of the slalom segment.  Factor in an early season Super Combined on a challenging hill like Birds of Prey and the challenges become that much greater.

A hybrid of the traditional combined event, which features one run of downhill and two runs of slalom on two separate days, the Super Combined was designed to be a spectator friendly competition, where the winner was determined by the lowest combined time for the two runs, rather than a complex mathematical formula that was undecipherable to most ski racing fans.  Only Kitzbuhel, Austria remains as the lone traditional two-day combined competition on the World Cup men’s calendar.

DOWNHILL:

The most exciting event in alpine ski racing, Downhill racers attempt to be the fastest one down the mountain through a minimum number of control gates.  Speeds in Downhill often exceed 80 mph on major courses and require a hill with at least a 750 meter vertical drop.

Downhill racers must have two training runs on a course before each race, although the second training run may be waived. 

SUPER-G:

Added to the World Cup calendar in 1983, Super-G was initially created in order to provide the Downhill specialists with an additional opportunity to score World Cup points, essentially giving the “speed” skiers two events, while the “technical” racers had Giant Slalom and Slalom.

A cross between Downhill and Giant Slalom, Super-G is a one-run event like Downhill, but with more frequent turns, ala Giant Slalom.  Unlike Downhill, however, there are no prior training runs for Super-G, just a racer inspection on the morning of the race.

GIANT SLALOM: 

Giant Slalom is the event characterized as being the discipline requiring the most technical skill as skiers race down the mountain through a faster and more open course than in Slalom, which requires the execution of many short, quick turns. 

The number of gates in a Giant Slalom course is determined by the vertical drop of the hill.  The event is staged in two runs, with the total time of each run added together to determine the final finish order.

In World Cup competition, the finish list from the first run is cut to the fastest 30 racers and reversed to determine the second run start order.  In Olympic or World Championships competition, all racers who finish the first run are allowed to take a second run.