Alpine Skiing

Alpine skiing can be learned from a ski resort, and you need speed, balance, tactics, agility and coordination for becoming a good player. The ski resorts provide the ski lifts for moving uphill and snow slopes where alpine skiing can be practiced. Here the toe of the ski boot binding should be fixed. There will be gates made of two poles connected with a banner and the skier goes around each gate in a prescribed order.
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There are different disciplines of alpine skiing:

Downhill skiing: It is considered as a premiere event in alpine skiing. Downhill skiing is a speed event and Skiers ski with 130 km/h and top skiers reach upto 160 km/h. Jumps and super engaging turns are very common during the race. The vertical drop of men is from 750m to 1100m and for women is 450m to 800m.

Super-G: Super-G or Super Giant slalom is a combination of downhill and Giant slalom. It has less vertical drop, more precise turns by placing the gates closer and high speed. The vertical drop of men and women is about 400m to 650m and the number of gates vary from 28 to 45. Since it has many turns, it is a more technical event than downhill skiing.

Giant Slalom: It is the fastest technical event with more turns and less vertical drop. There are about 30 to 65 gates and the event is contested over 2 heats on 2 different courses on the same day and the winner determined by the adding the times of 2 heats. The vertical drop for men and women is about 250m to 450m.

Slalom: It is the most technical event with quick turns due to closer gates with an average speed of 60km/h to 70km/h and number of gates around 40 to 75 per course. It also has 2 courses and the ranking is done by calculating the time of the two courses. The vertical drop for both men and women are around 120m to 240m.

Alpine Combined: Here the skier does downhill skiing followed by slalom/ Super-G and both the times are calculated to determine the ranking.

Parallel: It is a new event and is more technical where the continents face off against each other in duels held in identical parallel courses. There are usually 20 to 30 gates per course and the vertical drop is around 80m to 100m.

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Alpine Skiing Equipment

Alpine skiing equipment is usually around 200 cm long, if we consider the average height of the skier is 178cm. Since during downhill skiing, the skier has to minimize the wind resistance, the poles are designed to curve around the body of the skier. Whereas, for slalom events the poles used are straight that handles quick turns around the gates. The outer shell of the alpine boots are stiff, but the inner portion is padded. The step-in bindings are constructed for the toe and heel of the boot that clamp around the boot, so as to give the maximum support.
Apart from these equipment, the helmet, goggles, ski suit and wax to increase the control of skis are mandatory equipment.

Nordic Skiing

Unlike alpine skiing, In Nordic skiing the toe of the ski boot is fixed in such a way that it can rise off the ski. The Nordic ski race or classic is practiced mainly in hilly terrains of the Scandinavian countries. The 3 types of Nordic skiing are cross country skiing, ski- jumping and Nordic combined.

The world's oldest cross country ski race is Vasaloppet, which is around 90km and the Scandinavians love long distant skiing.

Cross Country skiing: Cross-country skiing is the oldest and requires a combination of speed, endurance and strength. It is a relay race of skiers and each participant has to ski a standard distance. It has different styles such as classic skis where skiing is on parallel tracks and skate skis where skating motion is used while skiing and is outside the parallel tracks on groomed surfaces. There are different types of cross country skiing such as Nordenskioldsloppet, Arctic Circle race and so on. Biathlon is a form of cross country skiing where the competitors race in cross country skis and shoot at different targets.

Ski-Jumping: The contestants aim to achieve the highest jump after sliding down the skis from a curved ramp. The jumping style and the height of the jump is taken into consideration for the judgment. Ski jumping is conducted from a hill with a steep slope that consists of a jumping ramp, take-off table and landing hill. Each jump has in-run, take-off, flight and landing.

Nordic Skiing Equipment

The Nordic ski is longer and narrower than Alpine ski. In order to improve the gliding movement on packed snow terrains, it has a small side-cut and high chamber. The poles extend up to the shoulder for maintaining a smooth stride. The bottom of the ski is designed to have a gliding surface usually made of plastic material to minimize friction.
The boots are cut close to the ankle and flexible and the binding is attached only to the toe for facilitating the heel to rise off the ski.

The Ski jumping skis are longer and wider in order to provide higher tracking during in runs and maximum lift during ski jumps. It has a flat chamber to reduce the impact of landing after the ski jumps.
The boots have higher backs and lower cut in front, such that the skier could easily lean forward during take off. The jumping binding has a heel wedge in back to lift the boot heel and a cord which secures the boot heel during take off.

Freestyle Skiing

Here, the skier performs gymnastics styles, aerial flips and spins, and sliding rails. The performance is ranked on the basis of artistic impressions and technical difficulty handled by the skier.

Different Types of Freestyle Skiing are:

AcroSki: The skier performed different types of spins, jumps, flips with music for 3-5 minutes from a gentle slope with 12 to 15 degrees elevation.

Aerial Skiing: The aerial skiers perform multiple flips and twists when they are around 20 meters above the landing height.

Moguls Skiing: Here the skier pushes the snow into piles and series of bumps on the trail and the ranking is determined on the speed, turn techniques and two upright jumps.

These 3 can be combined and the judgment is done based on the evaluation of all the 3 performances.

SkiCross: Like BMX or Motocross, here 4 skiers race with jumps and rollers crosses the finishing line.
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Apart from these, a few more disciplines such as SlopeStyle, Halfpipe and BigAir were recently added in the winter Olympics.

Freestyle Skiing Equipment

Freestyle skis are shorter than Alpine skis which are approximately 180cm long when we consider the standard height of skier as 178cm. It is designed such that it can facilitate maximum twists and turns easily.
Poles are not required for aerial skiing and longer poles are required for the other 2 disciplines.
The boots and bindings are similar to that of Alpine skiing but have more stability and ankle support when gliding.

Ski-Jumping

It is a winter sport where the skiing contestant aims to reach the farthest jump after sliding down from their skis. The aerial style of the continent and other styles and factors influence the final score.

It is usually performed from a steep slope on a ski jumping hill. It has a curved ramp, take-off table and a landing hill. The slopes are classified into the distance that the skier travels in the air, and K-point is considered as the target the competitor should reach.

In-run, take-off (jump), flight and landing are the 4 stages of Ski-jumping. The ski-jumping competitions are conducted by the International Ski Federation.

T-bar ski lifts can be used to reach the jumping hill for performing the ski-jumping race.

Speed Skiing

Speed skiing is one the fastest non motorized sports in the world. The highest estimated speed of speed skiing is 150 miles per hour for men and 125 miles per hour for females. The sport is conducted on a steep and straight track that is usually 1km long. T-bar Ski Lifts can be used to ride uphill for performing the Speed Skiing. The skier uses short skis and aerodynamic helmets that facilitate fast movement. The skies are usually 2.4 meters long and a maximum of 10 cm wide that weighs almost 15 Kg and the ski poles are 1 meter long. The aerodynamic helmet and dense foam fairings on the lower portion of legs makes the skier more streamlined. The ski suits are air tight in order to reduce the wind resistance. Ski boots are attached with the skis by bindings and the ski poles are bent to shape with the body.

Speed Skiing started by the end of the 1800s and became popular in the 1930s. For the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France, speed skiing was sanctioned as a demonstration event by IOC (International Olympic Committee), however thereafter it was not demonstrated in any Olympics.

Different Types of Ski-Racing