Points

Ski racing in the United States uses two points lists to rank athletes:
USSA points ranks athletes nationally, and FIS points rank them internationally. 

Points are used to score races, rank competitors and establish start orders.  As there is no standard racecourse, a formula is used to calculate the points by relating a racer’s time to the winner’s time.  The winner is given 0.00 race points, and then a penalty is calculated and added to each racer’s points to produce the racer’s results.  This penalty is based on the points of the best competitors in the field, and the difference in time between the winner and the other competitors.  This procedure allows the scoring of different races on different slopes and different days, each with different levels of competition to be based on a common scale. 

The average of a racer’s best two results in each scored discipline will be the points posted to the USSA or FIS list, which are updated several times throughout the season.  In both cases, lower points reflect better performance.  These lists are used by race organizers to establish the start order for races, and for coaches to make selections to teams and certain events.