Origins
Cross-country skiing has centuries of history as a method of transportation, but alpine skiing only came into existence in the mid-nineteenth century as a sporting activity. The sport spread throughout Europe and the United States as miners held skiing competitions as entertainment during the winter. Improvements to equipment, as well as the mechanisms to transport skiers up hills, helped popularize the sport.
1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Alpine skiing debuted with two events: men’s and women’s combined. Germany won four of six medals, including both golds and both silvers.
1948 St. Moritz
Alpine skiing expanded to three events and crowned its first triple medalist: Henri Oreiller of France. Gretchen Fraser earned the first medal (combined silver) as well as the first gold medal (slalom) for the U.S.
1952 Oslo
Three events were contested once again, but instead of combined (which disappeared until 1988), giant slalom made its Olympic debut. Norway’s Stein Eriksen thrilled the host nation by winning the inaugural giant slalom gold as well as a silver in slalom.
1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo
Austria’s Toni Sailer completed a gold-medal hat trick by winning all three events. In his first event, the giant slalom, he led Austria to the first Olympic sweep in alpine skiing by defeating his nearest teammate by 6.2 seconds, the largest margin of victory ever recorded in an Olympic alpine event. He became alpine skiing’s youngest male champion at 20 years, 73 days.
1960 Squaw Valley
The first Games in which alpine events were held on American snow, and the first Winter Games televised in the United States, took place in the mountains above Lake Tahoe in California. Downhill bronze medalist Traudl Hecher of Austria became the youngest alpine medalist (male or female) in history at 16 years, 145 days.
1964 Innsbruck
Billy Kidd and Jimmy Heuga became the first U.S. men to win Olympic alpine medals. Other firsts included: the first time events were clocked to the hundredth of a second, the first women’s tie (women’s giant slalom silver), the first women’s sweep (Austria in downhill) and the first sisters to go 1-2 in an individual Olympic event (Marielle and Christine Goitschel of France).
1968 Grenoble
France’s Jean-Claude Killy won all three men’s gold medals (downhill, giant slalom, slalom).
1972 Sapporo
Annemarie Moser-Proell earned two silver medals, but Austria failed to win gold for the first time since 1936. Slalom champion Francisco Fernandez Ochoa secured the first winter medal for Spain.
1976 Innsbruck
Austria’s Franz Klammer earned the nickname “Kaiser,” or king, by edging the 1972 downhill champion Bernhard Russi of Switzerland by .33 seconds. Slalom bronze medalist Hanni Wenzel became the first athlete to win an Olympic medal for Liechtenstein.
1980 Lake Placid
Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark swept gold in both men’s technical events, while Liechtenstein’s Hanni Wenzel swept gold in both women’s technical events.
1984 Sarajevo
The U.S. Ski Team’s best Olympic performance to date (five medals, including three gold) was also one of Austria’s worst (one bronze). Bill Johnson became the first American to win downhill gold at the Games. In men’s slalom, identical twins Phil and Steve Mahre went 1-2.
1988 Calgary
The newest alpine discipline (super-G) made its Olympics debut, and the combined event returned after a 40-year hiatus. The heavily favored Swiss team won 11 of 30 medals, including two golds by Vreni Schneider (women’s giant slalom, slalom) and one in men’s downhill by Pirmin Zurbriggen.
1992 Albertville
One-tenth of a second separated the men’s downhill medalists, with Austria’s Patrick Ortlieb winning gold. The women’s race was even closer, with the top three finishing within .09 seconds as Canada’s Kerrin-Lee Gartner defeated American Hilary Lindh.
1994 Lillehammer
The U.S. brought home four medals, including two gold. Tommy Moe scored a downhill upset by .04 seconds (the smallest margin of victory in an Olympic downhill) and then earned silver in super-G on his 24th birthday. Diann Roffe won the women’s super-G and Picabo Street took silver in the downhill.
1998 Nagano
Downhill gold medalist Jean-Luc Cretier of France became the oldest man at the time to win an Olympic event at 31 years, 291 days. Hermann Maier bounced back after crashing in downhill to win gold in super-G and giant slalom.
The women’s super-G marked the closest alpine race in Olympic history. The medalists were separated by a mere .07 seconds, with Picabo Street winning gold by just .01 seconds.
2002 Salt Lake City
Norway’s Kjetil Andre Aamodt became the most decorated alpine skier in Olympic history, with seven career medals, by winning two gold medals in Salt Lake City. American Bode Miller emerged as the top alpine skiing star for the U.S. by winning silver in giant slalom and combined. On the women’s side, 20-year-old Croatian Janica Kostelic recovered from three 2001 knee surgeries to win four medals (a single-Games record), including three gold.
2006 Torino
Norway’s Kjetil Andre Aamodt won his second consecutive and third overall super-G gold medal, becoming the first alpine skier to win the same individual event three times. He also became the oldest alpine skiing medalist at 34. Croatia’s Janica Kostelic defended her combined title and also won super-G silver, giving her the most career medals (six) of any female alpine skier.
Julia Mancuso, who is now the most decorated female U.S. Olympic skier, earned her first Olympic medal in Torino, a gold in giant slalom.
2010 Vancouver
The United States had its best Olympic alpine skiing performance, earning eight medals, which was twice as many as any other country in Vancouver.
Bode Miller and Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal both won a medal of every color. Maria Riesch claimed a pair of gold medals for Germany.
Lindsey Vonn claimed the downhill gold medal and super-G bronze medal.
2014 Sochi
Two generations of U.S. alpine skiers shined in Sochi, with Mikaela Shiffrin (18) becoming the youngest Olympic slalom champion and Bode Miller (36) becoming the oldest Olympic alpine skiing medalist.
Shiffrin became the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic slalom gold medal since 1972.
Miller earned his podium position by finishing in a tie for the super-G bronze medal with Canada’s Jan Hudec. Miller, the most decorated U.S. skier in Olympic history with six Olympic medals, became the first American to compete in alpine at five Olympics.
Ted Ligety became the first Olympic giant slalom champion from the United States. His victory came eight years after he claimed the combined title in Torino.
In an Olympic first in any alpine skiing event, the women’s downhill ended in a tie for gold between Switzerland’s Dominique Gisin and Slovenia’s Tina Maze. Maze also earned gold in giant slalom.
2018 PyeongChang
Though she was unable to return to the podium in women's slalom, Mikaela Shiffrin added giant slalom gold and combined silver to her Olympic medal collection at her second Games. Fellow American Lindsey Vonn capped off her legendary Olympic career with a bronze medal in the women's downhill.
On the men's side, the United States was held without an alpine skiing medal for the first time since 1998 as Ted Ligety's fifth-place finish in the combined competition proved to be the best result.
The shock of the Games came in the women's super-G. With all of the favorites having made their runs and the podium places presumed settled, Czech snowboard specialist Ester Ledecka started down the mountain as the 26th athlete. In doing so, Ledecka became the first woman to compete in both snowboard and alpine skiing at the same Olympics. Stunningly, Ledecka, a relative newcomer to alpine skiing, finished her run in 1:21.11, one hundredth of a second ahead of defending Olympic gold medalist Anna Veith of Austria and good enough for the gold medal. Seven days later, she took gold in the snowboard women's parallel giant slalom for good measure.
