The inaugural
world championships in
alpine skiing were held in 1931. It consisted of
downhill and
slalom events for men and women. Next year the
combined event was added to the program as a "paper" race which used the results of the downhill and slalom. During the 1930s, the event was held annually in Europe, until interrupted by the outbreak of
World War II, preventing a 1940 event. An event was held in 1941, but included competitors only from nations from the
Axis powers or nations not at war with them. The results were later cancelled by the FIS in 1946 because of the limited number of participants, so they are not considered official. Following the war, the championships were connected with the Olympics for several decades. From
1948 through
1982, the competition was held in even-numbered years, with the
Winter Olympics acting as the World Championships through
1980, and a separate competition held in even-numbered non-Olympic years. The
1950 championships in the
United States at
Aspen were the first held outside of
Europe and the first official championships separate of the Olympics since
1939. The combined event was dropped after 1948 with the addition of the
giant slalom in 1950, but returned in
1954 as a "paper" race which used the results of the three events: downhill, giant slalom, and slalom. During Olympic years from
1956 through 1980, FIS World Championship medals were awarded in the combined, but not Olympic medals. The combined returned as a separately run event in 1982 with its own downhill and two-run slalom, and the
Super-G was added to the program in
1987 (both disciplines were also added to the Olympics in
1988). There were no World Championships in 1983 or
1984 and since
1985, they have been scheduled in odd-numbered years, independent of the
Winter Olympics. A lack of
snow in southern
Spain in
1995 caused a postponement to the following year. The mixed nations team event was added to the program in
2005. Since
2007, the combined event switched to the new "super combined" format (one run each of downhill and slalom instead of one-run downhill and two-run slalom). The parallel
giant slalom was added to the program in
2021. In
2025, the individual combined event was replaced with team combined event (which involve two-person national teams assigned to downhill and slalom respectively) and the parallel giant slalom was dropped from the World Championships. ==Summary==