Giant slalom explained: What you can take from World Cup turns for carving

On 24 and 25 October, the world’s best giant slalom skiers will race the first World Cup event of the winter in Sölden. From the outside, it looks easy. Long, rounded arcs, hardly any snow spray and a line as straight as if drawn with a ruler.

The interesting part is that the physics are the same as in your carving turn on a red run. An edged, weighted ski bends and follows an arc on its edge. The differences are the equipment, speed and forces involved.

Understanding giant slalom therefore also helps you understand your own carving. It shows which parts of World Cup technique belong on a recreational piste and which do not. You can find out how to experience the race weekend on site in our article Sölden in October.

The World Cup figures come from the FIS specifications for the 2026/27 season, while the piste-ski radii come from the DSV skiTEST 2025/26. A World Cup giant slalom ski therefore has almost twice the radius of a racecarver. For women, the minimum length is 188 centimetres.

The radius printed on the ski is called the sidecut radius: the circular shape created by the wide tip, narrow waist and wide tail. It is not the radius you actually ski.

The edge angle also determines the arc you ski, meaning how steeply the ski stands against the snow. A study in the specialist journal Sensors simplifies it as follows: ski radius equals sidecut radius multiplied by the cosine of the edge angle. If you put a 17-metre racecarver on a 45-degree edge, the model gives an arc of around 12 metres. A World Cup ski with 30 metres would produce around 21 metres. This is a rough calculation, not a measurement. But it shows why the pros need so much space.

The downside of edging: the steeper the edge, the more force is needed to bend the ski far enough for the whole edge to grip. Without that force, the ski slips. More edge angle is therefore not automatically better.

When carving, every point of the edge follows the same track. In a drifted turn, the ski also slips sideways. It is not an either-or choice. Even in the World Cup, skiers drift when the line requires it.

Sports science divides a giant slalom turn into four sections. The German Ski Instructors’ Association (DSLV) describes the same turn using an image that is easy to remember: the turn clock. The fall line, the direct route downhill, is at 3 o’clock.

For you, the key point is the transition from the first to the second half. If you only apply pressure in the fall line, all the pressure arrives at once. If you start early and progressively, you distribute it.

A field study of six European Cup athletes in the British Journal of Sports Medicine compared giant slalom skis with radii of 30, 35 and 40 metres. With the 40-metre ski, the forces after the gate were lower and the arcs larger, at the same edge angle. The ski steered itself less. This exact self-steering makes carving easy. But if the skier loses balance, it can also become a problem. More on that below.

“Starting high” is something racers constantly hear from their coaches. It means starting the turn early above the gate so that the arc remains long and carved.

A study of 17 skiers in the journal Frontiers in Sports and Active Living compared two lines. In the S-line, long, carved turns begin well above the gate, with only a short straight section in between. In the Z-line, the skier travels straight towards the gate for longer and then turns sharply, with a greater risk of slipping. The surprising result: both lines can be equally fast. The skiers were faster when they lost less energy while turning, regardless of the strategy.

For the recreational piste, this means that the rounded, early-started turn is the calmer option. You do not have to ski it to be fast. You ski it because it saves energy and remains predictable.

The DSLV dedicated its 2024/25 training programme to the motto “Direction before speed”. The drills fit well with what the World Cup shows. You can perform all of them either drifted or carved.

The association also gives three tips that have an immediate effect. Move your gaze from one edge change to the next, not to the ski tips. Ski the turn in one continuous movement: one pressure phase should be enough. And complete each turn before starting the next.

For joint-friendly skiing, the DSLV explicitly recommends the opposite of what looks spectacular: distribute pressure well and avoid pressure peaks. The World Cup line and joint-friendly skiing therefore lead to the same image. A rounded turn with pressure beginning early.

Pole use is also part of the technique. You can calculate here whether your poles are the right length.

A review article in the specialist journal Die Orthopädie reports measurements by the German Ski Association showing forces of more than three times body weight while skiing. In the World Cup, knee injuries are the most common injury. The most common mechanism has a name: Slip-Catch.

A video analysis of 20 World Cup ACL tears in the American Journal of Sports Medicine describes it as follows. The skier loses pressure on the outside ski during the turn, extends the knee to regain grip and the inside edge suddenly catches. The knee rotates inwards and is forced into a knock-kneed position. Ten of the 20 cases happened this way, all while turning.

The picture is different for recreational carvers. Among 220 people with ACL injuries, a forward twisting fall was the most common mechanism, accounting for 54 per cent.

What does this mean for you? Be careful about jumping to the conclusion that carving damages the knees. The ASU does not record how people were skiing, and whether a larger ski radius protects the knee on a recreational piste has not been studied. Better technique is not a guarantee of protection either. A study of 38 female skiers over 40 found no automatic link between better technique and better knee stabilisation.

One finding from the same study is very practical. The thigh muscles became significantly fatigued over the course of the ski day, and a 45-minute lunch break produced no measurable recovery. Plan your more demanding runs for the morning instead. In the afternoon, ski more rounded turns at a slower pace.

You do not need a World Cup giant slalom ski for recreational pistes. Its 30-metre radius demands speed and space that you rarely have there. According to the DSV skiTEST, racecarvers are based on race skis but have more practical radii, and also require “space and speed”.

You will find racecarvers, slalomcarvers and all-round skis together with ski helmets and ski goggles for fast days.