Controlling speed

Does a racer ever need to be able to control speed?  I have had conversations with instructors, coaches and other racers about this topic.  The opinions seems to vary when considering whether a racer needs to control speed.  In my opinion, I think racers do need to be able to control speed because their line and turn shape is fixed by courses.  It isn't always possible to ski at maximum speed because of  where the gates are located.  It is also related to the reasons I believe free skiing is different from racing or gate skiing, and therefore the technique used can be very different.  I think that racing or "gate skiing" requires much more advanced use of the basic skiing skills than free skiing does.  In a recent technical skiing video I learned that controlling speed is accomplished through a combination of skidding and edging.  Skidding meaning turning of the feet or pivoting.  A skier uses pressure control to dissipate some of the speed generated upon their decent.  Generally a racer would not want to dissipate their speed, however there is a time when they will likely have to "check their speed," in order to make a gate that might be out of the rythmical line of the course.  In the technical video, the instructor suggested that an effective way to control speed is to skid and edge through the top of the arc and extend, which sprays snow off to the side of the arc.  In a racing turn the only time a racer skids is in early phase one, so the appropriate time to dissipate speed would be early phase one.  The trick is to know how much skid you apply in order to dissipate the correct amount of speed.  If you skid too much, you will dump too much speed and you will have a much slower time than you want.  This is one of the things that makes ski racing so much more challenging than free skiing.  In free skiing if you dissipate too much speed it doesn't really matter, where as in racing it could mean the difference between winning and losing the race.