How to watch Alpine skiing at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022

Alpine skiing is known as the "pearl in the crown of the Winter Olympic Games". The sport will be hosted by the brand new National Alpine Skiing Centre in the Yanqing District at Beijing 2022.

There will be 11 sets of medals on offer at the new venue, which presents some of the steepest and challenging runs in the world, with some sections up to a daunting 68 degrees.

The six alpine events (five individual, one mixed) run from 7 to 19 February,* with over 300 athletes competing across the two weeks.

Read on to find out the schedule of events and how you can watch.

ALSO: Olympic Alpine skiing at Beijing 2022: Top five things to know

*The men's downhill finals were originally scheduled for 6 February, however due to high winds the event was postponed until 12pm on 7 February.

Alpine skiing disciplines and events at Beijing 2022

There are six events in the Alpine competition at the Games: Downhill, Super G, Giant Slalom, Slalom, Combined, Mixed Team Parallel Slalom.

Two are speed events (Downhill, Super G), three are technical (Giant slalom, Slalom, Parallel slalom). The alpine combined event finds the best skiing all-rounder from both types of events.

Downhill: Arguably the premiere event of alpine skiing. The downhill is as basic as it gets: point the skis down the mountain, keep between the course markers, and the fastest time wins.

Super G: The Super G stands for super giant slalom, an event that combines the speed of downhill with the more precise turns of giant slalom.

Giant Slalom: The fastest technical event, where athletes must once again navigate the course and stay between the markers. The giant slalom is contested over two heats on the same day, with the times of both runs added together to determine the winner.

Slalom: The slalom is the most technical event in alpine skiing with poles (or gates) set very close together. Athletes must ski around them. Skiers get two runs, and the winner is determined by the fastest cumulative time.

Combined: In Beijing, this will take the form of a high-speed downhill run, followed by the slalom, with both competitions on the same day. The times of the two runs are added together to determine the final ranking.

Mixed Team Parallel Slalom: This event made its debut at PyeongChang 2018 and involves four skiers from each country facing off against each other on two identical courses, which sit next to each other. The event starts with a round of 16 before the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

Alpine skiing stars to watch at Beijing 2022

Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) comes to Beijing with a lot of expectations around her.

The two-time Olympic champion has the most World Cup wins out of any active skier. The American superstar came away from the 2021 World Championships with four medals (including gold in Alpine combined).

Shiffrin aims to compete in all five individual events, trying to challenge Janica Kostelic's record of four medals, including three golds, at a single Winter Games (Salt Lake City 2002).

Two of Shiffrin's main rivals in the technical events are defending overall World Cup champion Petra Vlhova (SVK) and two-time world gold medallist, Katharina Liensberger (AUT).

Despite a recent injury, speed queen Sofia Goggia (ITA) will try to defend her downhill title from PyeongChang 2018: only former German Olympian Katja Seizinger has managed to achieve that feat (at Nagano 1998).

Ester Ledecká (CZE) was the hero of PyeongChang 2018, where she claimed a historic double in ski and snowboard: “I can still do a triple or even a quadruple," she told Olympics.com. "There is still a lot of space for improvement.”

In the men's field, Marco Odermatt (SUI) will probably be the man to beat in the giant slalom after dominating the discipline in this World Cup season, but watch out for the old French lion Alexis Pinturault (three medals at the Winter Games) and rising stars such as the Norwegian Lucas Braathen.

Odermatt is also a medal contender in the Super G event, along with in-form 'Attacking Viking' Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR), who's looking to win his first medal at a major event**.**

Competition schedule

Venues: National Alpine Skiing Centre in Yanqing

Dates: Monday 7 February–Saturday 19 February

All times below are in China Standard Time (UTC+8). Schedule details are subject to change at short notice.

Monday 7 February

12:00 Men’s Downhill

09:30/14:30 Women’s Giant Slalom

Tuesday 8 February
11:00 Men’s Super G

Wednesday 9 February
10:15/13:45 Women’s Slalom

Thursday 10 February
10:30/14:15 Men’s combined

Friday 11 February
11:00 Women's Super G

Sunday 13 February
10:15/13:45 Men's Giant Slalom

Tuesday 15 February
11:00 Women’s downhill

Wednesday 16 February
10:15/13:45 Men's slalom

Thursday 17 February
10:30/14:00 Women's combined

Saturday 19 February
11:00 Team event

How to watch alpine skiing action at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022

Skiers can reach reach speeds of up to 152 km/h (95 mph), all while navigating a winding course full of sharp turns and soaring jumps.

Finding the fastest lines and having a risk-taking attitude is just as important as using the correct technique.

“I just skied really inside,” American ski legend Lindsey Vonn told the Guardian.

“I was really lateral and I’m pretty tall for a ski racer and everyone thought that was a weakness. But my coach told me it wasn’t, that it was actually a strength, so I didn’t change it. Eventually, in downhill, that became one of my strongest attributes, how I can lean into a turn and get a different angulation than most athletes.”

In the technical disciplines like slalom and GS, being 'centered' is crucial to ski efficiently.

"You always need to stay forward on the boots, shins parallel, your ski edges have to switch fast," says Olympic champion Ted Ligety.

"You also need to be in balance, on the centre of skis as much as you can."

Ligety developed a revolutionary technique for increased through carving deeper turns.

"It's about getting big angles, being able to drive your knees forward and get the hips really close to the ground. And so it's basically dragging. So it's big angles and longer cleaner arc sometimes. And those are kind of what I've been known for."

Alpine skiing is also a sport affected by many external factors, like the weather conditions which are constantly changing the quality of snow on the course.

Knowing the slopes well is especially key in the speed events, meaning skiers face an additional challenge in Beijing where the courses couldn't be tested in the World Cup due to the pandemic.

"We will discover the sites during Games time. Adaptation will be key," said two-time world champion Tessa Worley.

"Snow conditions could be unique and at least different from what we have in Europe."