One was Marc Girardelli, who was still using conventional inside-arm clearing. Many people were surprised that he won the slalom at the 1989 World Alpine Ski Championships by a fairly big margin. His victory made coaches and athletes realize that there is more to fast slalom skiing than a particular method of clearing gates. Girardelli demonstrated excellent footwork, perfect timing, and an aggressive line as well as other technical elements that made him ski faster than the others. Slalom skiing at the junior level is on its way to a great disaster because junior racers concentrate only on hitting slalom poles and getting them out of the way.
Ski racing at any level is about speed.
What exactly generates the most speed, however, has been somewhat unclear. In general, I believe in a very basic approach to ski racing. One may wonder how a racer's speed depends on these components. Therefore, all the technical elements of ski racing, including gate-clearing techniques, should be geared toward the line of descent and carving. We'll look at whether the two key components are present in these pictures and how each racer applies them.