<P> Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline . It involves skiing between sets of poles (gates) spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G . </P> <P> Giant slalom and slalom make up the technical events in alpine ski racing . This category separates them from the speed events of Super-G and downhill . The technical events are normally composed of two runs, held on different courses on the same ski run . </P> <P> The vertical drop for a GS course must be 250--450 m (820--1,480 ft) for men, and 250--400 m (820--1,310 ft) for women . The number of gates in this event is 56--70 for men and 46--58 for women . The number of direction changes in a GS course equals 11--15% of the vertical drop of the course in metres, 13--18% for children . As an example, a course with a vertical drop of 300 m (984 ft) would have 33--45 direction changes for an adult race . </P> <P> Although not the fastest event in skiing, on average a well - trained racer may reach average speeds of 40 km / h (25 mph) in the giant slalom . </P>

What is the distance of the giant slalom in the olympics