Alpine skiing, event by event.

Which rulebook, which edition

ICR Book IV, "Joint Regulations for Alpine Skiing", covers downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super-G, parallel, combined, team and KO events. FIS's alpine documents page lists a current ICR dated 4 September 2026, but that file could not be reached for this site, and a Japanese translation of a November 2025 edition did not extract as readable text. The figures below therefore come from the English ICR Book IV, Edition July 2020, approved by the FIS Council in May 2020 and still hosted in FIS's archive. Every number on this page from that book is labelled "ICR 2020". Rules can change between editions, and the current ICR and the race jury decide.

Two general rules frame everything else. All events on the FIS calendar must be held under the applicable FIS rules (ICR 2020, art. 200.1), and FIS-calendar races are open only to licensed competitors entered by their National Ski Associations within quotas (art. 200.3).

The four individual events

The vertical-drop ranges in the table are those ICR 2020 sets for the Olympic Winter Games, World Championships and World Cup, unless the cell says otherwise.

In slalom, ICR 2020 also sets the number of direction changes at 30% to 35% of the vertical drop, plus or minus three. A broadcaster's table (NBC Olympics, seen only as a search summary) gives the same men's and women's vertical-drop ranges as ICR 2020 for all four events. The same summary calls downhill and super-G the speed events and slalom and giant slalom the technical events; the ICR text read here does not define those two terms, so that usage is the broadcaster's.

Combined events

Under ICR 2020, article 1100, a combined result is found by adding the times of the single events or runs, and a competitor counts only after taking part in every part. ICR 2020 names three forms:

• Alpine combined (art. 1101): one downhill or super-G run plus one slalom run, ideally on one day.
• Classical combined (art. 1102): a downhill and a slalom, each treated as a separate event.
• Special forms, which the article also allows; their detail is not covered here.

The team combined is newer than ICR 2020. Ski Racing, reporting its debut at the 2025 World Championships in Saalbach, described teams of two from one nation, one skiing a downhill run and the other a slalom run, with the combined time deciding; the slalom start order reversed the downhill results; up to four teams per nation; and no World Cup points. FIS's own rule text for the team combined was not found, so that description is the trade press's, not FIS's. FIS named the team combined among its innovations for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics.

Parallel and team events

• Parallel (ICR 2020, arts. 1221 and 1222): two competitors race side by side on two courses set as equally as possible, with at least 50 m vertical drop, 15 direction changes and a 160 m course.
• Running a parallel (art. 1230): a qualification run, then knockout heats from a round of 32 through the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.
• Mixed team parallel (art. 1212): a parallel using giant slalom gates and panels; each nation's team is at most six competitors with at least two of each gender, and each competitor starts once per run. FIS also lists separate "Mixed Team Parallel Rules" for the World Cup, World Championships and Olympics, dated 29 April 2024, which were not read.

A press report, seen only as a search summary, says the team parallel was dropped from the 2026 Olympics because the men's and women's alpine venues were too far apart. That is unconfirmed.

Helmets, airbags and other 2026/27 equipment rules

Equipment is covered by a separate FIS document, the Specifications for Alpine Competition Equipment. The equipment research for this site read the Edition 2026/2027 of July 2026 and the Edition 2025/2026 of July 2025. FIS's documents page also lists a 2026-27 version dated 8 October 2026, valid from October 2026, which was not read. The details are on FIS race ski rules, and the ski measurements can be compared with the July 2026 table using the race ski checker. In outline:

• Helmets: ICR 2020 (art. 707) already required every downhill competitor and forerunner to wear a crash helmet meeting the FIS specifications in official training and the race. The 2026/27 specifications make helmets compulsory at all FIS alpine events (3.6.1). For downhill, super-G, giant slalom and parallel, the model must be certified to both "ASTM 2040" (read as ASTM F2040; FIS gives no edition) and EN 1077 class A, pass an extra EN 1077 test at 6.8 m/s, and carry an "RH 2013" label (3.6.2.1). Slalom needs at least EN 1077 class B or ASTM 2040 (3.6.2.2). FIS says helmets "do not offer an absolute protection" (3.6.3).
• Airbags: the FIS Council confirmed in November 2024 that airbags were mandatory in World Cup downhill and super-G from 2024/25. The 2025/26 specifications made the airbag mandatory at race levels 0 and 1 from 15 October 2025, with exceptions for the Nor-Am Cup, Far East Cup and Junior World Championships; the 2026/27 edition keeps the level 0 and 1 rule for speed events and no longer lists those exceptions (3.5.2.4, citing ICR 627.2). In October 2025 the Council approved enforcing mandatory protective equipment such as airbags in training as well.
• Cut-resistant underpants: mandatory at levels 0 and 1 in 2025/26, and at all FIS alpine events in 2026/27 (3.5.3.4).
• Skis: new for 2026/27, maximum ski lengths for downhill, super-G and giant slalom, and a maximum weight for ski, plate and binding together. The same 2026/27 document also says elsewhere that there is no weight limit (1.1.2 against 3.1.2.4), so FIS's own text contradicts itself on weight.

Fluorinated wax is banned in every FIS discipline under ICR 222.8; see wax and the fluor ban.

Where alpine racing stands on 24 October 2026

At the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics, FIS listed ten alpine events: downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and team combined, five each for women and men, with the men racing on the Stelvio at Bormio and the women at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre at Cortina. The results are on Milano Cortina 2026.

The 2026-27 World Cup began with the women's giant slalom at Soelden on 24 October 2026 and is in progress, with finals scheduled at Sun Valley, USA, from 20 to 25 March 2027. FIS's draft calendars of May 2026 had 43 men's races at 21 venues and 40 women's races at 20 venues, subject to Council approval. The 2027 World Championships are at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, from 1 to 14 February 2027. No 2026-27 standings are given here while the season runs; see the 2026-27 season.