rules to play down hill skiing

Rules to Play Down Hill Skiing

11. Helmet
A helmet is compulsory for downhill and super G and is often worn in slalom and giant slalom. Some skiers choose to attach a chin guard.
12. Poles
In the downhill and super G, poles are curved to fit around the body to reduce air resistance. In the slalom events, poles are straight and often have plastic guards covering the knuckles to help skiers knock the slalom poles out of their path.
13. Skis
Skis are generally made of various material (wood, composite fibres) specially adapted to the wear and tear they undergo during a race. Their performance on the snow depends also on their length, width and shape which vary, depending on the course, and the speed. Metal edges on the skis are sharpened for every race to make the ski hold during the turn on the icy surface.
14. Suit
Skin tight racing suits are worn to reduce air resistance and suits must meet minimum requirements for air permeability. Padding may be worn under the ski suit a plastic back protector is usually worn in downhill. In slalom events, pads are frequently worn on the arms, knees and shins.
15. Bindings
Bindings are the link between the boots and the skis. Safety bindings will release when the torsion or impact is strong enough. The maximum height (distance between the bottom of the running surface of the ski and the ski boot sole) is regulated at 55mm.
16. Age limits
All participants must have turned 15 before the end of the 2010 calendar year to be eligible.
17. Races
In all forms of Downhill, both at a local youth level as well as the higher FIS international level, racers are allowed extensive preparation for the race, which includes daily course inspection and discussion with their coaches and teammates as well as several practice runs before the actual race. Racers do not make any unnecessary turns while on the course, and try to do everything they can to maintain the most aerodynamic position while negotiating turns and jumps.Unlike Slalom and Giant Slalom, where racers have two combined times, in the Downhill, the race is a single run. Times are typically between 130 (1 minute, 30 seconds) and 230 for World Cup courses and must be over 1 minute in length to meet international minimum standards. Tenths and hundredths and, occasionally, thousandths of seconds count World Cup races and Olympic medals have sometimes been decided by as little as one or two hundredths of a second, and ties are not unheard of.
18. Risks
In and some courses, such as the Lauberhorn course in Wengen, Switzerland, and the Hahnenkamm course in Kitzb
19. Ancient origins
Skiing can be traced to prehistoric times by the discovery of varying sizes and shapes of wooden planks preserved in peat bogs in Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway. Ski fragments discovered in Russia have been carbon dated back to circa 8000 7000 BC. It is virtually certain that a form of skiing has been an integral part of life in colder countries for thousands of years.
20. First competitions
Skiing changed its from a method of transportation into a sporting activity during the late 19th century. The first non military skiing competitions are reported to have been held in the 1840s in northern and central Norway. The first national skiing competition in Norway, held in the capital Christiania (now Oslo) and won by Sondre Norheim, in 1868, is regarded as the beginning of a new era of skiing enthusiasm. A few decades later, the sport spread to the remainder of Europe and to the US, where miners held skiing competitions to entertain themselves during the winter. The first slalom competition was organised by Sir Arnold Lunn in 1922 in M