Alpine skiing

Alpine skiing is the sport of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. It is also commonly known as downhill skiing, although that also incorporates different styles. Alpine skiing can be contrasted with skiing using free-heel bindings; ski mountaineering andnordic skiing – such as cross-country; ski jumping; and Telemark. Alpine skiing is popular wherever the combination of snow, mountain slopes, and a sufficient tourist infrastructure can be built up, including parts of Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, the South AmericanAndes, and East Asia.

Alpine skiing began as a club sport 1861 at Kiandra in Australia and a number of similar clubs in North America and the Swiss Alps. Today, most alpine skiing occurs at a ski resort with ski lifts that transport skiers up the mountain. The snow is groomed, avalanches are controlled and trees are cut to create trails. Many resorts also include snow making equipment to provide skiing when the weather would otherwise not allow it. Alternatively, alpine skiers may pursue the sport in less controlled environments; this practice is variously referred to as ski touring, backcountry skiing, or extreme skiing.

In competitive alpine skiing races four disciplines exist: slalom, giant slalom, super giant slalom, and downhill. Slalom ski races have courses that require short tight turns, whereas giant-slalom races have courses which are set with more widely spaced turns. Super-giant slalom and downhill have few turns, the courses have gates spaced widely apart and skiers often reach 100 km/h.

Valeri Tsyganov (born 14 October 1956) is a Soviet former alpine skier who competed in the 1980 Winter Olympics and 1984 Winter Olympics. To date he is the only Russian to win a world cup skiing event.

Aleksandr Vasilyevich Zhirov (Russian: Александр Васильевич Жиров; 12 September 1958 - 18 May 1983) was a Soviet alpine skier.

He won four Alpine Skiing World Cup races in March 1981 and finished second in the 1981 giant slalom world cup. Two years later he died in a car accident.

Yevgeniya Nikolaevna Sidorova (later Kabina, Russian: Евгения Николаевна Сидорова, later Кабина, December 13, 1930 – January 29, 2003) was a Soviet alpine skier who competed for the Soviet Union in the 1956 Winter Olympics, in the 1960 Winter Olympics, and in the 1964 Winter Olympics.

She was born in Moscow. In 1956 she won the bronze medal in the slalom event. In the downhill competition she finished 37th and in the giant slalom contest she finished 40th.

Four years later she competed as Yevgeniya Kabina and finished 18th in the 1960 slalom event. In the same year she finished 20th downhill competition and 31st in the giant slalom contest.

At the 1964 Games she finished 27th in the slalom event, 37th downhill competition, and 38th in the giant slalom contest.

Svetlana Alekseyevna Gladisheva (Russian: Светлана Алексеевна Гладышева) (born September 13, 1971 in Ufa) is a retired Russian alpine skier.