Performance Trends In US Alpine Skiing

This is just a quick note as I sift through some of the alpine skiing data. I’ve made similar plots as these for XC skiing in the past, so these are just the same idea but for the US alpine folks. First a look at the men:

This is tracking the results (per race) for US men over all WC, OWG and WSC races in these events for each season. Since in alpine skiing you routinely have final results with barely more than 30 skiers, I dropped the ‘Top Thirty’ category. The Bode Miller effect is fairly evident, particularly in the speed events (Downhill and Super-G). The GS results have been generally pretty stable over the last decade, with the usual ups and downs from year to year. Slalom has probably been the weakest event, although it’s interesting to note as a XC fan that they’re still pulling down a top ten result fairly regularly.

And here’s a look at the women:

Same (familiar) story, with the strengths being the speed events, for the most part. The dip in the downhill results marks a sort of transition between the Picabo Street era and the Lindsay Vonn era. I’m less of a student of US alpine racing, but obviously the 2004-2005 season stands out in slalom. A quick check reminds me of a particularly good season by one Kristina Koznick (and also Sarah Schleper).