Alpine skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics

Alpine skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics included ten alpine skiing events. They were held at Sestriere and Cesana-San Sicario. The alpine skiing events of the 2006 Winter Olympics began on 12 February and ended on 25 February 2006.

Medal table

uper-G

In the Super-G competitions, skiers must navigate between gates at high speed, and the gates are further apart than in slalom and giant slalom competitions. As in the downhill, there is only one run of the Super-G. The men's competition took place on Saturday, 18 February, with the defending Olympic champion Kjetil André Aamodt expected to start.

Women's events

Downhill

The women's downhill was held on Wednesday, 15 February. It is identical in format to the men's downhill, except that the course is shorter. Carole Montillet from France was defending Olympic champion, but she was 19th in the 2005–06 World Cup downhill standings, headed by Michaela Dorfmeister from Austria. The Croat Janica Kostelić was defending World Champion, but she was fourth in the overall World Cup standings, though she did win one World Cup race at Bad Kleinkirchheim in January [http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/610.html?sector=AL&competitorid=32044&raceid=39174] . Britain's Chemmy Alcott finished 11th, the best finish ever of a British women in this event, although she had for a while been in Silver and Bronze medal positions.

Giant slalom

The last event of the women's alpine skiing, the giant slalom, took place on Friday, 24 February. Kostelić was a favourite once again, as she was defending Olympic champion, but Swede Anja Pärson led the World Cup and was defending World Champion of the event. Kostelić was second in the World Cup standing, however, while Austrian Kathrin Zettel was third.

lalom

The women's slalom was contested on Wednesday, 22 February. Janica Kostelić led in the slalom World Cup with 460 points, and was also defending World and Olympic champion, but she finished 0.15 seconds behind Marlies Schild for the 4th place. Anja Pärson got her first Olympic gold medal.

Qualification

All entries had to be submitted to the organizing committee by 30 January 2006.

In general, athletes must be among the top 500 in the world in their event to compete. They must also have no more than 120 FIS points. Each National Olympic Committee may enter up to 22 athletes, but not more than 14 men or 14 women. No more than 4 athletes from any NOC may compete in each event.

If an NOC has fewer than 2 athletes qualified under those rules, it may send one male and one female athlete with an FIS score of no more than 140 in the slalom or giant slalom event.

References

* [http://www.torino2006.org/ENG/OlympicGames/bin/page/C_3_page_eng_130_spalla_paragrafo_1_attachments_s_allegato_0_object_s.pdf TOROC Explanatory Book - Alpine Skiing]
* [http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/disciplines/alpineskiing/fiswscmedals.html?category=&sector=AL&season=2005&nbr=4&search=Search FIS-SKI - FIS World Ski Championships medals] , URL accessed 23 December 2005
* [http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/disciplines/alpineskiing/olympicmedals.html FIS-Ski - Olympic medals] , URL accessed 21 December 2005
* [http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/disciplines/alpineskiing/cupstandings.html Alpine Skiing Cup Standings] , URL accessed 21 December 2005
* [http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/disciplines/alpineskiing/fiscalendar.html?cal_suchplace=&cal_suchseason=2006&cal_oldsector=&cal_date=&cal_suchgender=&cal_suchcategory=WC&cal_codex=&cal_suchnation=&cal_search=Search World Cup Calendar] , from FIS-Ski, URL accessed 21 December 2005
* "Sportsboken 2002" published by Sportsboken AS, edited by Tore Johansen

ee also

*List of Olympic medalists in alpine skiing