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Downhill skiing is the most popular form of recreational skiing. Unlike cross- country skiing, gravity does most of the work to provide propulsion . Weekend enthusiasts flock to hills and mountains from New England to California. Predictably, the sport is most popular in countries with mountainous regions, like those containing the Alps in Europe or the Rockies in North America. Competitively, downhill skiing (also known as alpine skiing) is divided into speed and technical events. Generally, the more turns an event requires, the more technical it is considered to be. The speed events in downhill skiing are the downhill and the Super Giant Slalom (super-G). In the downhill, skiers try to remain in a position as aerodynamic as possible while traveling from the starting line near the top of a marked course to the finish at the bottom of the mountain. The athletes must

remain on the course, marked by flags called

“gates,” which are spaced relatively far apart to mark the course. Speeds in the downhill event can approach 100 mph (161 km/h). In the super-G, the gates are closer together, giving the racer less time to get to the necessary position to turn and stay within the gates. Speeds in super-G can be in excess of 80 mph (129 km/h). In the technical events, the giant slalom and the slalom, the gates are very close together, and the skiers are constantly turning from edge to edge to keep their skis inside the gates.

Slovenia’s Tina Maze (shown here racing in a super-G) is a four-time world champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist. In 2013, she also won a World Cup season title in the super-G.

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