Less than a week away from the opening ceremonies (six until the first day of competition) at Sochi 2014. Up next on the countdown: Alpine skiing preview.
One of the largest participating sports in the winter games, Alpine events at Sochi will boast at least one athlete from quota spots assigned to 74 countries per FIS standards.
When it comes to history, parity has been the theme, especially on the men's side where downhill had 17 different winners, while slalom also had 17 different winners; the same with combined where there have been nine different winners of that event. Didier Defago (Switzerland), Giuliano Razzoli (Italy) and Bode Miller (United States) were the respective winners of those events at Vancouver 2010. However in super G and giant slalom, there have been some dominance. Kjetil Andre Aamodt (Norway) won the super G three times, the most in that event. Aamodt won gold in the super G at Albertville 1992, and again at Salt Lake City 2002 and Turin 2006. Also Alberto Tomba (Italy) won twice on the giant slalom, the most of anyone in that event. Tomba won the giant at Calgary 1988 and again at Albertville.
On the women's side, there have been seven different winners of the super G, with the most recent being Andrea Fischbacher (Austria) at Vancouver. Besides that event, every others had dominance. Katja Seizinger (Germany) won the downhill twice, the most in that event. Seizinger won the downhill events at both Lillehammer 1994 and again at Nagano 1998. Deborah Compagnoni (Italy) won the giant twice: at Lillehammer and again at Nagano. Vreni Schneider (Switzerland) won the slalom twice: at Calgary and again at Lillehammer. Finally, Janica Kostelic (Croatia) won the combined twice: at Salt Lake City and again at Turin.
Kostelic and Aamodt tie for the most individual gold medals in Alpine in the Olympics with four.
The Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort (pictured, above) is the venue for Alpine events at Sochi.
Up next: snowboarding preview
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