Preview: Alpine skiers on steep learning curve at Beijing Winter Olympics

BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- For the world's best alpine skiers, the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games promises to be a level playing field, in that none of the elite athletes have previously competed on the mountainous courses.

Starting this weekend, the Yanqing National Alpine Ski Center, some 90km outside the Chinese capital, will host its first international competition across an array of men's, women's and mixed events.

The fact that competitors have not had the chance to test the courses, aside for some training runs this week, is being seen as a positive by some prominent athletes such as reigning World Cup holder Vincent Kriechmayr of Austria, who told reporters it will be good because it "will be the same for everybody."

The alpine skiing events are divided into two broad categories: speed and technical.

In speed events, each competitor makes a single run down a single course with the fastest time securing the gold medal.

Probably the best-known speed event is downhill racing where skiers hurtle along the snowy course at up to 150km/h, and soar over vertical drops, all the while navigating through a series of red flags.

Besides Kriechmayr, his fellow countryman Matthias Mayer, who became the seventh Austrian gold medalist at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, is also a leading male contender for the downhill events.

Reigning Italian gold medallist Sofia Goggia is determined to defend her Olympic downhill title despite her super-G crash in Cortina.

Super giant slalom (super-G) is another speed event, calling for the lightning-fast reflexes of downhill racing combined with the technical prowess of conventional slalom racing.

Among the leading male super-G contenders will be Frenchmen Mathieu Faivre and Alexis Pinturault who have both stood on the winners' podium at previous Olympics and World Championships.

For women super-G competitors, Ester Ledecka, Pyeongchang Winter Olympics gold medalist in both super-G and parallel giant slalom, looks to be in prime position.

In alpine skiing technical events, competitors make two runs down two different courses on the same slope, with the combined times determining the winner.

Among those events, the slalom has the sharpest turns and is held over the shortest course. There is also a giant slalom which is a longer, faster version, with wider courses making for longer, smoother turns.

In the men's field, Marco Odermatt of Switzerland will probably be hard to overtake in the giant slalom after his domination in the World Cup season, but three-time Olympic medal winner Alexis Pinturault and Norwegian World Cup winner Lucas Braathen are expected to be strong contenders.

In an interview with Olympics.com, Braathen said he will do his best to be as well prepared as possible for the Beijing Games.

"You know, you don't ski Olympics aiming for top 15 or top 10 or top five. You know, it's top three or nothing. So that's what I'm aiming for."

In the women's slalom events, U.S. two-time Olympic gold medallist and six-time world champion Mikaela Shiffrin appears to be in the box seat. Two of her main rivals are likely to be Petra Vlhova of Slovakia and two-time world gold medallist Katharina Liensberger of Austria.

At last year's World Championships, Liensberger became the first Austrian woman to win the slalom world title since four-time Olympic medallist Marlies Schild in 2011, denying Shiffrin a fifth-consecutive slalom title in the process.

One Olympic great who will be closely watching the action at Yanqing is Zali Steggall, who skied for Australia at four Winter Games from France's Albertville in 1992 to U.S. Salt Lake City in 2002. She also won Australia's first ever individual Winter Olympics medal in Japan's Nagano in 1998.

Recalling the start of her own Olympic quest, Steggall, who is now a federal politician, told Xinhua that it "takes a lot of training and sacrifice in the lead up to your first Olympics."

"I remember doing 26 months of winters in a row; chasing the snow season between the northern and southern hemisphere to train," she said.

Meanwhile, Steggall has a final message to all competitors, especially Australia's alpine skiers including three-time Olympian Greta Small, as well as Katie Parker and Louis Muhlen-Schulte, who will make their Olympic debuts.

"It takes a lot of determination to get to this point, and the athletes will be feeling the weight of all of that when they come to the Olympic Games. I wish them all the best," Steggall said.