Alpine skiing debuted at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany with two events: men’s and women’s combined. Germany won four of six medals, including both golds and both silvers. The field of skiers for the debut of Winter Olympic Alpine skiing was depleted, however, due to the International Olympic Committee considering ski instructors as professionals and ineligible to compete. It was the only time in Olympic history that Austria earned no medals whatsoever in the sport.

While the sole inventor of Alpine skiing is unknown, historians point to many prominent figures who advanced the sport throughout history.

Cross-country skiing has centuries of history as a method of transportation, but Alpine skiing only came into existence in the mid-nineteenth century as a sporting activity. The sport spread throughout Europe and the United States as miners held skiing competitions as entertainment during the winter. Improvements to equipment, as well as the mechanisms to transport skiers up hills, helped popularize the sport.

Historians recognized Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen as a proponent of skiing spreading throughout Europe. After completing an expedition across Greenland on cross-country skis in 1888, mountaineers from France, Switzerland and Austria began importing skis from Scandinavia.

Mountaineers began to build improvements on skis to handle the steeper alpine terrain of Europe, including proper bindings and poles as well as rope tows, T-bars, chair lifts and gondolas to improve transportation on mountains.

Arnold Lunn, a British skier, is credited with inventing the slalom race, as well as the combined in 1924. Lunn and Hannes Schneider, an Austrian skier, created the first great classic event of Alpine skiing called the Arlberg-Kandahar in 1928.

Six years later, Alpine skiing made its debut at the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Olympics.

While the men's and women's combined were the only events at the 1936 Winter Olympics for Alpine skiing, the sport expanded to three events (slalom, downhill, combined) at the 1948 St. Moritz Winter Olympics. This was the first Olympics where an American won a medal in Alpine skiing when women's skier Gretchen Fraser earned silver in the women's combined and won gold in the women's slalom.

At the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, the combined event was not included in the Alpine catalog. In its place, the giant slalom made its Olympic debut. It was at these Olympics that Norway's Stein Eriksen rose to fame, one of the sport's first superstars who won the inaugural giant slalom gold and a silver in slalom. Four years later, Cortina d'Ampezzo was the host of the Winter Olympics, making its return in 2026.

The 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Olympics were the first televised in the United States. French downhill skier Jean Vuarnet became the first Olympic champion to win a gold medal using metal skis in the downhill, as well as innovating the tuck position, a staple technique in Alpine skiing to reduce drag on downhill sections of a course.

The newest individual event, the super-G, made its Olympic debut along with the return of the combined event at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.

The 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics featured a new Alpine discipline, the team event, which featured teams of skiers going head to head on a slalom course simultaneously against another team in four consecutive races made into a bracket-style format. The name changed to the mixed team parallel at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

At the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, the mixed team parallel, along with the men's and women's combined event, has been replaced with a men's and women's team combined event, which involves one athlete racing each discipline of the combined (slalom and downhill) for a team.

Norwegian skier Kjetil Andre Aamodt holds the most career medals in Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics with eight (four gold, two bronze and two silver). He also was the first Alpine skier to earn medals in the same individual event three times at the Winter Olympics, winning a medal in every event except slalom (no athlete has a medal in all five disciplines). Aamodt's four gold medals are tied with Croatian women's Alpine skier Janica Kostelic for the most Olympic gold medals.

Bode Miller became the most famous American Alpine skier in Winter Olympics history due to his performance at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Miller has six medals in his Alpine Winter Olympics career across the five Winter Games he participated in, the most of any American. Lindsey Vonn, who already was one of the most famous American skiers of all time, gained even more fame after winning the gold medal in women's downhill in 2010, adding to the historic Alpine skiing performance of the U.S. team in Vancouver.

Mikaela Shiffrin, who has the most FIS Alpine World Cup titles of all time, is tied with Andrea Mead Lawrence and Ted Ligety for the most gold medals by an American (2), with the chance to eclipse that record in 2026.

One of the most memorable women’s races came during the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, where the super-G marked the closest Alpine skiing finish in Olympic history. The medalists were separated by a mere 0.07 seconds, with American skiing phenom Picabo Street winning gold by just 0.01 seconds. 

At the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, Andre Aamodt became the most decorated Alpine skier in Olympic history, with seven career medals, by winning two gold medals in Salt Lake City. American Miller emerged as the top Alpine skiing star for the U.S. by winning silver in giant slalom and combined. 

At the same Olympics, Kostelic, who has the most medals in women's Alpine skiing history (tied with Sweden's Anja Paerson with six) had the best single Winter Olympics performance in Alpine skiing history, winning three gold medals in the slalom, giant slalom and combined with an additional silver medal in the super-G. A year prior, she had been recovering from three surgeries on her left knee.

One of the most famous American Alpine skiing moments came with Lindsey Vonn's first gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Vonn, who entered Vancouver with a bruised shin, caught a break when the women's downhill became postponed due to weather delays until after the combined, giving Vonn more time to heal. She proceeded to race a near-flawless run in the downhill, keeping her balance on the final bump and winning her first gold medal after suffering a crash at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino.

Among the history for the Americans in 2010, Miller won a medal of every color, the most by an American in a single Winter Olympics in Alpine skiing, as the U.S. Alpine team tallied eight medals, the most in team history.

More recent history came from the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the women's super-G. With all of the favorites having made their runs and the podium places presumed settled, Czech snowboard specialist Ester Ledecka started down the mountain as the 26th athlete. In doing so, Ledecka became the first woman to compete in both snowboard and Alpine skiing at the same Olympics. Stunningly, Ledecka, a relative newcomer to Alpine skiing, finished her run in 1:21.11, one hundredth of a second ahead of defending Olympic gold medalist Anna Veith of Austria and good enough for the gold medal. Seven days later, she took gold in the snowboard women's parallel giant slalom for good measure.

At the most recent Olympics, Switzerland dominated the competition, winning nine medals across all the disciplines, including five gold medals. Beat Feuz headlined on the men's side with the fastest downhill skiing run in Winter Olympics history, and Lara Gut-Behrami captured gold in the super-G and bronze in the giant slalom.

Among all the nations, none are more dominant in Alpine skiing than Switzerland and Austria. In Winter Olympics history, Austria leads the medal count with 121 (37 gold), followed by Switzerland with 66 (22 gold).

Though Austria holds the all-time medal count, Switzerland recently has had the upper hand at the Winter Games. In the inaugural Alpine team event at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, Switzerland beat Austria 3-1 in the contest, with Marco Schwarz of Austria failing to finish the race after swerving out of control in the slalom during the last round of the competition.

At the most recent Winter Olympics in 2022, Switzerland swiped nine medals, including five gold, beating Austria's seven medals. 

Two Americans hold the record for the oldest male and female medalists. Miller, already with five medals in his Olympic career, won a bronze medal in the super-G at his final Winter Olympics at age 36. After missing the 2014 Sochi Winter Games with a knee injury, Vonn returned to the Olympic stage at age 33 at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games and secured a bronze medal in the downhill.

Over 60 years ago, Austrian skier Traudl Hecher became the youngest medalist, taking the bronze medal in the downhill at just 16 years old. More recently, Norwegian skier Henrik Kristoffersen became the youngest male medalist in 2014, winning a slalom bronze at the Sochi Winter Games.