Maybe you HAVEN'T heard of it…
Alpine Snowboarding is a snowboard event with competition circles around the world. There are two main disciplines today, Parallel Slalom (PSL), and Parallel Giant Slalom (PGS). In PSL, the gates are closer, making the turns tighter, and the snowboards used smaller. In PGS, the turns are longer, the speeds are higher, and the boards are longer. Two courses, with triangular panels like above are set parallel, and identical to each other, usually between 25 and 30 gates.
The goal is to be the fastest down the course, but its not that simple. A race day has several components. All athletes will inspect each course before the race begins. Then athletes will take two qualification runs, one on each course. At a given event there may be over 100 athletes showing up for qualification. After the first run, the fastest 32 men and fastest 32 women will switch courses and do a second run. When qualification is finished, the fastest 16 combined times from runs 1 and 2 for men and woman will qualify for finals.
In finals, the competition is head to head, meaning two athletes race to the bottom at the same time. Over time, with so many athletes running each course, the turns become deteriorated, making each run down the course more challenging to negotiate. The highest seeded athletes will have there choice of course in finals, choosing the fastest, or cleanest running course, whatever gives them the best advantage.
In Finals, much like the NCAA basketball tournament bracket system, the highest seed (#1) will compete against the lowest seed (#16), then #2 vs. #15, #3 vs. #14 and so on down the line. When athletes compete in finals, the first racer to cross the finish line moves on, the other is knocked out. To compete for a medal, an athlete will need to qualify (2 runs), then compete head to head (4 times). Quality, and consistency are vitally important in our sport.