about Para Alpine Skiing

Para alpine skiing is practised worldwide and features six disciplines: downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super-G, alpine combined, and team events. Not all disciplines are included in the Paralympic Winter Games. Athletes combine speed and agility while racing down slopes at speeds going up to around 100km/h.

Athletes compete in three categories based on their functional ability (sitting, standing and vision impaired), and a results calculation system called factored timing allows athletes with different impairments to compete against each other.

Athletes use equipment that is adapted to their needs including single ski, sit-ski or orthopaedic aids. Skiers with vision impairment are guided through the course by sighted guides using verbal signals to indicate the course to follow. The distance between an athlete and guide in slalom must be less than three gates and less than two gates for giant slalom, super-G and downhill, excluding delay gates and vertical combinations. Failure to comply will lead to disqualification.

In downhill medal events each athlete competes one run down a long, steep course, passing through a number of gates. Their finish time determines the final order based on ascending time. If an athlete misses a gate they are disqualified.

In the slalom competition each athlete competes two runs on the same day on different courses. Each course is shorter than other events but has a high number of gates that the athlete must negotiate. Times from the two runs are added together to determine the final order based on ascending total time. If an athlete misses a gate they are disqualified.

Giant slalom follows the same format as the slalom event but is a longer course with fewer gates, as well as a bigger distance between the gates than slalom. The number of gates is determined by the vertical drop of the course. If an athlete misses a gate they are disqualified.

The super-G is a speed event where each athlete completes one run down the course with their finish time determining the final order based on ascending time. The course is generally shorter than downhill but longer than slalom and giant slalom.

A alpine combined competition represents the final result of two disciplines - usually one of either a downhill or super-G and a single run of slalom. Each athlete competes two runs on the same day on different courses. Times from the two runs are added together to determine the final order based on ascending total time.

The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) is the global governing body of Para alpine skiing.

Para alpine skiing history

Para alpine skiing made its debut at the Örnsköldsvik 1976 Paralympic Winter Games with 78 athletes from 12 countries competing in two disciplines – slalom and giant slalom.

Downhill was added to the Paralympic programme in 1984 in Innsbruck, Austria, while super-G was added in 1994 at Lillehammer, Norway. Super combined was included as a Paralympic discipline at Vancouver 2010.

Initially only athletes with an amputation and vision impairment were able to compete in Para alpine skiing events at the Paralympic Winter Games. Sit-skiing was introduced as a demonstration sport at the Innsbruck 1984 Paralympic Winter Games and became an official part of the programme at Nagano 1998.

The sport has been governed by FIS since July 2022, having previously being governed by World Para Alpine Skiing.

Since the sport made its Paralympic debut in 1976, 29 countries have won at least one medal, including 23 that have won a gold medal.

Austria, who topped the Para alpine skiing medals table at Beijing 2022, is the most successful Paralympic nation in the sport to date, winning 280 medals, including 94 gold.

The most successful male athlete is Germany’s Gerd Schoenfelder (16 gold medals, four silver medals and two bronze medals) while the most decorated female skier is fellow German Reinhild Moeller (16 gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal).

At the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, Canada’s Lauren Woolstencroft made history when she became the first athlete to win gold medals in all five disciplines. Germany’s Anna Schaffelhuber repeated the feat at Sochi 2014.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Austrian Aigner siblings (Johannes, Veronika and Barbara, along with guide and sister Elisabeth), won an impressive four gold, three silver and two bronze, for a total of nine medals in a single edition of the Games in Beijing 2022 in the same discipline (visually impaired category).