Slalom Skiing is an individual sport where competitors ski a downhill course while weaving between poles or flags. The competitor that completes the course quickest is the winner.

Slalom skiing is an alpine skiing discipline that involves skiing between gates spaced much closer together than in Giant Slalom, Super-G, or Downhill, thereby causing quicker and shorter turns. Slalom, along with Giant Slalom, makes up the technical events in alpine ski racing and is separate from the speed events. A course is constructed by laying out a series of gates. Gates are formed by alternating pairs of red and blue poles. The skier must pass between the two poles forming the gate. Because the offsets are relatively small in slalom, skiers take a fairly direct line and often knock the poles out of the way as they pass, which is known as blocking.

The goal of slalom skiing is to race down the course in the shortest amount of time while making sure to ski between all gates.

Rules for slalom skiing are managed internationally by the International Ski Federation. In the United States, skiing events including slalom are managed by the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.

The rules for the modern slalom were developed by Sir Arnold Lunn in 1922 for the British National Ski Championships, tried by the FIS in 1928, and adopted for the 1936 Winter Olympics. Under his rules, the gates were marked by pairs of flags rather than single ones, were arranged so that the racers had to use a variety of turn lengths to negotiate them, and scoring was on the basis of time alone, not time and style.

Gates
Ski Poles
Slalom Skis

Training for slalom skiing is similar to training for other alpine skiing events except that skiers must learn to compensate for the higher rate of speed and smaller offsets.

Angulation - arcing the body at the hip, knee and ankle joints to achieve a higher degree of ski edge

Christy Turn - a skiing turn with a skidding phase

Double Poling - using both poles at the same time to thrust the body forward as opposed to the diagonal stride poling method

Herringbone - moving forward on cross-country skis in a stepping mode with the ski tips further apart than the tails, forming a herringbone pattern in the snow

Inclination - leaning of the body in the direction of the turn to engage ski edges and resist centrifugal forces from the turn

Kick Turn - a way of turning to the opposite direction of travel by kicking one ski to a 180 degree position followed by the other ski

Parallel Skiing - skiing the the skis parallel. Skis can be either together or apart

Sidestep - moving laterally in small steps on cross-country skis

Straight Run - traveling straight down a hill with the skis parallel and the body on the skis in balance

Telemark - a stable position used in turning or on variable terrain; the lead leg is forward of the body while the trailing leg follows in a kneeling configuration

Waxing - applying a coating to the bottom of the skis to reduce friction

Wedge Turn - also called the snowplow turn. Its an elementary turn with the skis in a wedge position where the tips of the skis are closer than the tails

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slalom_skiing