A very popular snow discipline at the Winter Universiade, Alpine Skiing had its premiere at the event’s first edition in Chamonix, France, in 1960. Alpine skiing is the sports discipline with the highest participation level in the WU, e.g. 40 countries participating in the 2011 Winter Universiade in Erzurum, Turkey.
Alpine skiing is the sports discipline with the highest participation level in the WU, e.g. 40 countries participating in the 2011 Winter Universiade in Erzurum, Turkey. Today’s alpine skiing competitions are organised for men and women as follows: Downhill or Super Combined, Super G, Giant Slalom, Slalom. The running of competitions is always supervised by the FISU Technical Chair for alpine skiing and the FIS Technical Delegate, who chair all technical meetings concerned. All slopes must follow the requirements of the International Ski Federation (FIS) and must go through a homologation process by getting the FIS certificate, necessary to host international competitions.
A very popular snow discipline at the Winter Universiade, alpine skiing had its premiere at the event’s first edition in Chamonix, France, in 1960. Alpine skiing had previously been on the programme of the traditional International Winter Weeks which were held in 1951 in Bad Gastein, 1953 in Saint Moritz, 1955 in Yugoslavia, 1957 in Oberammergau and 1959 in Zell am See. From the first edition onwards, the following races have been organised for men and women: Slalom Special, Giant Slalom and Downhill. Afterwards, the combined results of these three disciplines have also been taken into consideration. The first medal of the 1960 WU was attributed to French skier Cécile Prince in the Super Giant Slalom. For many years student athletes from Switzerland, USA, Italy, Czechoslovakia and Austria have dominated these World Students Games. Many participants and medallists of the WU also took part in the OWG, as for example: Naoki YVASA (JPN), Martin VRABLIK (CZE) or Filip TREJBAL (CZE). Alpine skiing has already been 28 times in the Winter Universiade programme from 1960 to 2017.