Realtime Factored Times and What that Means for Para-Alpine Skiers

Para-Alpine athletes compete in five disciplines: downhill, super G, giant slalom, slalom and super combined.

At the Paralympics, Para-Alpine events take place on the same hills as the Olympic Alpine events. Athletes who are visually impaired, in a sit ski, or competing in standing classifications regularly reach speeds in excess of 130 km/h in downhill. At those speeds, every hundredth of a second matters. But in Para-Alpine skiing, not all seconds are equal.

How do you train accurately when your seconds are not worth the same as your competitor’s or teammate’s seconds?

Each athlete’s time is multiplied by a classification factor. This produces what is known as factored time.

What is factored time?

Para-Alpine skiing has three main categories: visually impaired, standing and sitting.

Within each category, athletes are assigned classifications that determine the time factor applied to their result. The skier with the fastest raw time is not necessarily the winner. The adjusted, or factored, time determines final rankings.

Athletes in higher classifications must ski a certain percentage faster than athletes in lower classifications to win.

In training, this creates a real problem. If you only look at raw time, you can make the wrong call on what is working and what is not.

Instant factored times in training

Historically, calculating factored times during training required optical timing systems, manual calculations, and significant staff time. Athletes often waited hours before receiving adjusted comparisons.

With Protern, factored times are available immediately after each run, using the same timing foundation teams already rely on for daily analysis. If you want more detail on how Protern timing is validated, see How Protern validates its timing accuracy.

Canadian Para-Alpine High-Performance Director Matt Hallat explained the impact:

“We’ve always needed timing systems that require setup, teardown, operation and manual factored calculations at the end of the day.”

“An athlete used to make a run at 10am and wait until close to dinner time to receive factored comparisons. Now they can get it instantly.”

More time for coaching

Instant factored timing does more than provide faster feedback. It reduces logistical overhead.

“Not only does the technology provide instant factored feedback, it frees up coach time so we can focus where we want to be, on coaching,” Hallat said.

For Para-Alpine programs, realtime factored times can change what a training session looks like. Athletes can see where they stand relative to teammates across classifications, then adjust tactics during the same session instead of waiting until later.

Factored timing is only one part of the performance picture. When it is paired with run comparison and video review, teams can connect classification-adjusted results to what actually happened on the hill.

• Compare athletes and runs to see where time changes inside the run: 4 ways to use Compare Runs in training
• Bring GPS data into video review to make feedback easier to act on: Data-linked video analysis
• See how teams use Protern day to day: For teams and programs