They are separated by vertical drop and gate spacing, which together determine speed. Slalom is the tightest, with 55 to 75 gates over 180 to 220 metres of drop for men and turns roughly every second. Giant slalom has about a third as many turns over a longer course, with wider offsets and speeds of 60 to 80 km/h.
Sustained speeds of 100 to 130 km/h are routine on a World Cup downhill, with peaks above 140 km/h on the fastest sections. The highest speed ever measured in a race was 161.9 km/h, recorded by France's Johan Clarey on the Haneggschuss at Wengen in 2013.
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| Stat | Mikaela Shiffrin | Ingemar Stenmark |
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They are separated by vertical drop and gate spacing, which together determine speed. Slalom is the tightest, with 55 to 75 gates over 180 to 220 metres of drop for men and turns roughly every second. Giant slalom has about a third as many turns over a longer course, with wider offsets and speeds of 60 to 80 km/h.
Sustained speeds of 100 to 130 km/h are routine on a World Cup downhill, with peaks above 140 km/h on the fastest sections. The highest speed ever measured in a race was 161.9 km/h, recorded by France's Johan Clarey on the Haneggschuss at Wengen in 2013.
Because it is faster. Until the early 1980s slalom poles were rigid, usually bamboo, and racers had to ski around them, which forced a wider line. Hinged breakaway poles changed that: a racer can now take the shortest possible line straight through the gate and simply knock the pole flat with a shin, forearm or shoulder.
Every World Cup race awards points to the top 30 finishers on a fixed scale: 100 for a win, then 80, 60, 50, 45, 40 and downward to 1 for 30th. The racer with the highest total across the whole season, in every discipline, wins the overall Crystal Globe — the sport's most prestigious season-long prize. Separate small globes go to the highest scorer in each individual discipline.
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