Snowboarding

Snow like the sea, moguls like waves, snowboards like surfboards.

Leaping and racing in one of the most spectacular of sports: an emerging discipline that has already shown its muscles.

A symbol of freedom and fashion, strongly linked to the young: it exercises an intense fascination on them.

Technical skills and the ability to perform spectacular manoeuvres are the ingredients of snowboard. The Olympic snowboard events are:

• Men's and women's Parallel Giant Slalom
• Men's and women's Half Pipe
• Men's and women's Snowboard Cross

Parallel Giant Slalom

The parallel giant slalom is a competition in which two riders race down the same slope on two parallel courses, outlined with gates and triangular flags, blue on the left course and red on the right course.

The setting of the courses, the terrain and snow coverage must be as identical as possible. The vertical drop between the start and finish lines must be between 120 and 200 metres. The competition is preceded by 2 qualifying runs.

The first 16 go through to the final that takes place over two rounds alternating the runs (red, blue). The athlete who breaks the tapes first after two runs, goes through to the next round. In the first round a "penalty time" (4% of the best qualification time) is added if a competitor fails to complete the course or leaves the track. The second run determines entry into the next round or the medal awards.

Half Pipe

The half pipe event is held on a half-cylindrical field, shaped into the snow, similar to that used for skateboard, hence the name half pipe. It is approximately 120-130 m long with a gradient of 16-17%.

Athletes must jump up over the side walls and then land back, riding the walls while performing acrobatics, called manoeuvres and tricks, crossing the half pipe from one side of the wall to the other for six-eight times, using the whole length of the pipe.
Each athlete chooses a music track to accompany the entire performance. There are five judges, each of whom examines the competitor on specific judgement criteria:

• straight manoeuvres without rotation (standard air);
• rotation;
• overall assessment including the evaluation of the height of the manoeuvres, the amplitude, the technical quality of the performance and the falls, if any (overall impression).

The 12 women and the 12 men who achieve the highest scores in the two qualifying runs go through to the final. The final consists of two runs: the winner and final scores are determined by the best of the two runs.

Snowboard Cross

Competitors must be skilled in acrobatic as well as alpine techniques. Snowboard cross will make its Olympic debut at the Torino 2006 Games.
The competition course is designed and built by a technician (shaper) and is made up of different sections: whoops (moguls), waves, banks, kickers and spines (jumps with 90° angles).

A series of blue and red gates and triangular flags marks the course and indicates entrances to obstacles.
In the first two runs, the athletes compete individually. The 32 athletes with the best times of the two qualification runs advance to the finals. In the finals, the starting gate is designed to accommodate four athletes and opens simultaneously for all four. The first two athletes to reach the finish line in each heat advance to the next stage of the finals.

Source: www.torino2006.org

Event schedule