Ski slalom is a fast and furious sport at the Winter Olympics and has been part of the Games since the 1948 edition in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
First Held | 1948 for both men and women |
Most Gold Medals (Athlete) | No skier has won more than one gold |
Most Gold Medals (Country) | Austria (8) |
2022 Gold Medal Winner (men) | Clement Noel (France) |
2022 Gold Medal Winner (women) | Petra Vlhova (Slovakia) |
Events
One gold medal will be available in the men's competition and one for women.
Slalom skiing also forms part of the men's and women's team combined events, which sees one skier from each nation competing in the downhill and one in the slalom, with their times combined.
How does Ski Slalom work?
Slalom skiing is a simple enough event to understand. Each competitor must complete a run through a series of gates set down a slope with the fastest overall time from two timed runs producing the winner.
Gates are set in positions that force the skier to turn sharply from left to right and back again throughout the run and if any gate is missed out the skier will be disqualified.
It is the most technically difficult of all the alpine skiing events. Taking the fastest route down the course in modern competition means getting as tight to each gate as possible, with the spring loaded pole snapping back at the competitors throughout.
The men's course will be set with between 55 and 75 gates, while the women have to negotiate between 40 and 60, which are marked with alternating red and blue poles.
Competitors are not allowed to practice on the course itself before their timed runs but they are permitted to ski alongside the route in a one-hour pre-race inspection to assess the conditions, with the amount of ice and depth of the snow needing to be taken into account.
2026 Venues
The men's slalom skiing events at the 2026 Winter Olympics will be held at the Stelvio Ski Centre in Bormio, Italy. Located on the Vallecetta mountain, it was opened for the 1985 World Championships and is one of the steepest courses on the international calendar.
Bormio also hosted the World Championships in 2005 and held the World Cup finals in 1995, 2000 and 2008.
The women's slalom will be held at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo, which hosted the men's Olympic downhill event in 1956.
The slalom events will be the final alpine skiing disciplines held at the 2026 Winter Olympics with the men's runs scheduled for 09:00 GMT and 12:30pm GMT on Monday, 16th February and the women's event due to take place at the same times two days later on Wednesday, 18th February.
Team GB History
Team GB Athlete with the most medals
No Team GB athlete has ever won a Winter Olympic medal in slalom skiing.
In the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Great Britain's Dave Ryding finished 13th in the men's event, while Charlotte Guest was 21st in the women's slalom.
Ryding has competed in the last four Winter Olympics, with a best finish of ninth place in 2018.
Facts & Trivia
The word slalom comes from the Morgedal/Seljord dialect of the Norwegian word slalom, where sla means slightly inclining hillside and lam means track after skis.
The rules for the modern slalom were developed by Arnold Lunn in 1922 for the British National Ski Championships.
The vertical drop for a men's slalom course is 180 to 220 metres, with the women's course being slightly shorter.
Slalom skis were typically more than two metres long in the 1980s but competitors found an edge by using shorter skis and by the 2002 Winter Olympics some athletes were using skis as short as 160cm. A minimum length was then set at 155 cm for men and 150 cm for women, but that was increased to 165 cm for men and 157 cm for women in 2003.
Austrian have been the most successful nation by far in Olympic slalom events with 18 total medals in the men's competition, while Italy and France have eight each.
The United States and Switzerland have the most Olympic women's slalom medals with eight each.
Norway's Atle Lie McGrath leads the 2025-26 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup standings with 452 points, just ahead of Brazil's Lucas Pinheio Braathen on 451 and 2022 gold medallist Clement Noel on 43.
Mikaela Shiffrin of the USA is a long way clear in the women's World Cup slalom standings on 780 points with Camille Rast of Switzerland second on 492.
