How para alpine skiing rankings work
Para alpine skiers race in three categories: vision impaired (with a guide), standing and sitting. Within each category, skiers of different impairment classes race together. Each skier's time is multiplied by a factor for their class, giving a calculated time, so that skiers with different impairments can be compared fairly.
From there it works much like alpine skiing:
- World Cup points for the top 30 in each category: 100 for a win, 80, 60, down to 1 for 30th. They add up to event standings, an overall standing and a nations ranking. Higher is better.
- FIS points from the calculated time behind the winner, plus a penalty for the field's strength. Lower is better. They decide start order and entries.
World Cup points
| Place | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 | 30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 100 | 80 | 60 | 50 | 45 | 40 | 36 | 32 | 29 | 26 | 16 | 11 | 6 | 1 |
- Only skiers within 15% of the best adjusted time in their category score.
- If only one skier is on the start list in a category, they get 50 for finishing; with two skiers, 80 and 60.
- The downhill and super-G legs of an alpine combined do not count for those event cups or the overall.
- Parallel events: losers are grouped by the round they lost in, then ordered by qualifying time. Team events give no cup points.
- Ties get the points for that place.
Standings:
- Event rankings: all points in one event (slalom, giant slalom, super-G, downhill), by gender and category. A trophy needs at least four races in two places, and at least six skiers from three countries in the ranking.
- Overall: all points in all events. A trophy needs event trophies in at least two events.
- Nations: all overall points of a country's skiers. If level, the country with fewer scoring skiers wins.
FIS points
Race points use the alpine formula on calculated times:
P = (Tx ÷ To − 1) × F, with F = 1250 (downhill), 1190 (super-G), 1010 (giant slalom), 730 (slalom), 1360 (alpine combined).
Here To is the calculated time of the overall winner of that gender and Tx the skier's calculated time.
Race penalty, as in alpine skiing: (A + B − C) ÷ 10, where A is the five best FIS points among the top 10, B the five best among all starters and C the race points of the five in A. Missing values count at 330 (downhill), 270 (super-G and combined), 220 (giant slalom) or 165 (slalom). If only one or two skiers are ranked, a fixed penalty of 250 (technical events) or 340 (speed events) applies.
Minimum penalty by level:
| Level | Events | Minimum penalty |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Paralympic Winter Games, World Championships, World Cup | 0 (maximum 25 if it cannot be calculated) |
| 1 | Continental cups (Europa Cup, North American Cup and others) | 15 |
| 2 | National championships | 20 |
| 3 | FIS races | 23 |
| 4 | Entry level (ENL) | 60 |
Race result = race points + penalty.
Points lists:
- Base list: average of the best two results in each event last season. One result: +20% (at least 20 points). No results: +50% on last year's points (at least 50). Licensed skiers with no results are listed at 999.99.
- During the season (monthly): the average of the best two results, or the base list, whichever is lower.
- Injury, work or study breaks: points can be frozen for the season (+10% when carried into a new season); the status ends after five starts.
- Maximum value: 999.99.
A worked example
Made up to show the arithmetic. In a giant slalom the overall women's winner has a calculated time of 120.00 seconds. A sitting skier's calculated time is 129.60 seconds:
P = (129.60 ÷ 120.00 − 1) × 1010 = 0.08 × 1010 = 80.80 race points. At a Europa Cup with a calculated penalty of 12.40, the minimum of 15 applies: result 95.80.
Where the document disagrees with itself
- Some page footers say "edition 2025/26" while the cover and other footers say 2026/2027.
- 2.5.1 refers to "the 2.4.1.2 criteria" for event trophies; the criteria are in 2.5.1.
- 3.4.4.2 points to "art. 3.4.4.1" for the maximum values, which are in 3.4.6.
Variations
| Ranking | Covered here |
|---|---|
| Para alpine World Cup (event, overall, nations) | Yes |
| Europa Cup and North American Cup overall | Briefly (same method) |
| Para alpine FIS points | Yes |
| Class factors | No |