Additionally, the finishing time of the elite athletes in the race often varies by a mere hundredths of a second 2, implying that any kinematic or kinetic factor may significantly influence the final ranking directly or indirectly, such as aerodynamic drag force, ski-snow interaction, equipment (for example skis, poles, and racing suits) and trajectory as well as the skiing techniques 3, 4, 5. The results of the modelling analysis showed that the finish time increased by 19.75% for the ambient wind direction of 270°, whereas the finish time decreased by 1.29% for the ambient wind direction of 360°.Īlpine skiing is one of the most popular snow sports that perfectly combines speed and skill, is one of the official and signature Winter Olympic sports, and consists of five principle sub-projects: downhill (DH), slalom (SL), giant slalom (GS), super giant slalom (SG) and alpine combined (AC), of which the DH is the most extreme event in terms of competition speed with athletes reaching top speeds in excess of 140 km/h 1.

Moreover, the wind speeds and the wind directions for 16 different measurement points of the downhill track were also obtained.

Field measurements and wind tunnel tests were performed to identify five critical ambient wind directions of 270°, 292.5°, 315°, 337.5° and 360°. Then, the Chinese National Alpine Ski Center (CNASC) downhill track was taken as a case study to investigate the effect of ambient wind on the gliding time using the proposed combined evaluation method. Considering the effect of ambient wind, a kinematic model of the alpine skier-ski system was established, and the equations of motion for straight gliding and turning were deduced. In the present study, a method based upon the combination of field measurements, wind tunnel tests and kinematic simulations was used to evaluate the effect of ambient wind on the performance of an alpine downhill skier.

Alpine skiing, especially alpine downhill, is one of the most extreme winter sports in terms of high-speed and narrow winning margin, and its tracks are always located in mountainous areas with high altitudes and complex ambient wind fields, resulting in a significant impact of ambient wind on the performance and the final ranking of alpine downhill skiers.

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