How to watch Alpine giant slalom at the Winter Olympics: A guide to understanding and appreciating the sport

I don’t know who the first person to think, “Hey, let’s set up a bunch of poles with flags on them and tell people to avoid them while they fly down a frozen mountain as fast as they can with slats strapped to their feet” was, but I do know that the first giant slalom was set up in Italy in 1935.

Since then, technology has improved, of course — skis are now made from high tech materials like carbon fiber and fiberglass as opposed to ye ole’ traditional wood. But the goal in giant slalom at the Winter Olympics remains the same: Get to the bottom of the mountain as fast as you can while zigging and zagging around every gate. You get two chances.

The U.S. Olympic team this year is strong — a lot of the names you recognize during the Winter Olympics belong to skiers. Competitors like Lindsey Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin, Ted Ligety, Steve Nyman, and Laurenne Ross are all looking to climb to the top of the podium this year.

You’ll be able to watch the Olympics on NBC and its network of channels as well as streaming live online at NBC Sports.

Feb. 11: Women’s giant slalom, run 1 (8:15 p.m. ET), run 2 (11:45 p.m.)
Feb. 17: Men’s giant slalom, run 1 (8 p.m.), run 2 (11:45 p.m.)

Move to a ski town out west. Serve beers at a ski lodge to make ends meet, or work as one of the lift attendants. Either would be worth it to ski some fresh pow, because no one’s got it more right than ski bums who realized it actually makes the most sense to play all the time. Living on a great mountain is also a good way to watch some incredible races. Giant slalom is thrilling: these athletes go so fast (25 miles per hour!). They crash hard, too, which raises the physical stakes. And they’re so precise in their movements — how much of their ski edges to use, when to make themselves as small as possible, how to balance — that it’s truly mesmerizing to watch.

Basically, you go down a hill as fast as you can and pass each gate on alternating sides, so it looks like skiers are snaking down the mountain. They get two runs to put up their best times.

The weirdest rule is that someone can just move the course if the snow isn’t good enough or something gets messed up with the original run. Say a meteor falls right in the middle of the course, rendering it un-skiable. The Olympic committee can just be like, well, guess we gotta regroup, and choose another place on the mountain to hold the competition. Not sure many other sports have that written into their rule book … “Oh, Gillette Stadium got run over by a pack of wild Pats fans? No biggie, move the game to Fenway.”

You can talk about how rutted out the course is getting as athletes compete on it — look for the gouges in the snow that build up around the outside of the gate and sometimes give later skiers a disadvantage in skiing close to the gate.

That’s the real key: How clean are the lines? That means, how close to the gate are the Olympians able to ski? The closer to the gate they get, the less snaking they’ll do, the straighter the line will be, and the faster they’ll go because of the reduced friction skis generate when you have you use your edges in a turn. That’s another thing you’ll hear announcers talking about: how much of their edges are skiers using? How’s their balance and center of gravity? You want it to be low to propel you downhill and reduce wind resistance.

Ted Ligety or Mikaela Shiffrin. Ted’s been competing in the Olympics since 2006, and he’s the most decorated skier of all time: He has a GS gold medal, 24 GS World Cup wins, three GS world championship gold medals, and five World Cup titles. At 33, this could be his last Olympics, but never say never. He also owns a ski gear company called Shred Optics, which is just so sick and gnarly, man. Mikaela is the youngest Olympian ever to win a gold medal, when she topped the podium in 2014. She’s looking to repeat this year in Pyeongchang.

Eh, it’s not that American. It’s way more Swiss. Or German. Or French. Unless you’re a super rich American who can afford ski vacations out west. Then I guess it’s pretty American. The one percent, baby!!!!