The ski world finally has an answer to the decades-old question, "What the bleep is a Chinese downhill,' and its name is skiercross.

An all-out race to the bottom always appeared as the climax scene in Hollywood ski movies. The one from "Hot Dog" is the original and coined the politically incorrect and probably offensive term. The race scene from "Better off Dead" is also memorable. It was these movie scenes that first showed the raging potential of lining several skiers up at the top of a mountain for a no-holds-barred, first-one-down-wins competition.

Now Chinese downhill is a World Cup event. Skiercross was accepted onto skiing's most prestigious stage for the first time this season. Boardercross has been on the World Cup slate for a few years.

Skiercross is a difficult event to categorize. It lies somewhere north of traditional but south of new-school on the current skiing spectrum.

The first national-level skiercrosses happened at the Games, so the event was originally associated with new-school contests like halfpipe, slopestyle and big air. On the other hand, skiercross is a race, and the skiers who do it best are former downhillers and super-G racers.

Skiercross is the first new World Cup skiing event since freestyle emerged in the 1970s. Its traditional racing slant and its status as a non-judged event likely gave it an edge over the other new-generation events in gaining World Cup legitimization.

But somehow, skiercross ended up on the freestyle tour, right alongside moguls and aerials. Thing is, the event really doesn't belong anywhere.

As a speed event, it should be part of the alpine circuit. Imagine the world's elite downhillers and super-G skiers lined up shoulder-to-shoulder and duking it out over steep, icy rollers and banked turns. What fan of Hermann Maier or Daron Rahlves wouldn't pay to see them going head-to-head, side-by-side at highway speeds? What great TV; what great potential for serious injury. And so, it will never happen.

But why freestyle? Well, ever since ballet became acro-skiing then fell off the face of the skiing earth in the 1990s, freestyle has been a two-event discipline. The addition of skiercross pushes it back to its original number of three. But unlike the ballet days, no freestyle skier is getting a combined, three-event score.

Mogul skiing, aerials and skiercross really could not be more different from each other. Whereas ballet, moguls and aerials all are rooted in the hot-doggin' era of the 70s and require similar skiing skills, skiercross is a black sheep.

Of all the new types of contests, halfpipe fits best under the freestyle umbrella. Jeremy Bloom, Shannon Bahrke, Toby Dawson - those skiers would rip the pipe and probably already do. But ask them to go up against alpine speed specialists in a skiercross, and they'll be bringing up the rear.

Or they'll be smart enough not to compete. The U.S. Ski Team will not field an official squad for these skiercross events, which began at the second freestyle World Cup stop Dec. 1 in Tignes, France. There are no coaches and no team budget. But it will accommodate any Americans who want to participate.

The American talent will come from the U.S. speed team, from people who were just below the elite level as alpine racers. Now they'll switch to freestyle, but they won't switch their skiing style. The fastest to the finish still wins-just now, there's no stopwatch.