After all, slalom competitions aren t simply about letting the hill do the work. Staying in shape for downhill competition is a large time commitment. Coach Paul Wojick points out that alpine skiing is mainly about power and technique, so his skiers work hard to have a great deal of power before the snow begins to fall. Once the slopes are adequately covered, three days a week are spent practicing out on the slalom and giant slalom courses. The weekends are usually for competitions, and they still have plenty of dry-land training during the season.
Intercollegiate competitions are quite grueling.
They usually take two days, with the tighter, smaller slalom race first. Each varsity skier has two attempts down the slope. The next day, everyone again speeds downhill, this time on the faster, more maneuverable giant slalom. The times from the three fastest skiers on the team compose the team score. The men s and women s teams may compete separately, but they do nearly everything else together.