Freestyle skiing is a
skiing
Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International S ...
discipline comprising aerials,
moguls,
cross
A cross is a religious symbol consisting of two Intersection (set theory), intersecting Line (geometry), lines, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of t ...
,
half-pipe
A half-pipe is a structure used in gravity extreme sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding, skiing, freestyle BMX, skating, and scooter riding.
Overview
The structure resembles a cross-section of a swimming pool, essentially two concave ramps ...
,
slopestyle
Slopestyle is a winter sport in which athletes skiing, ski or snowboard down a course including a variety of obstacles including rails, jumps and other terrain park features. Points are scored for amplitude, originality and quality of tricks. Th ...
and
big air as part of the
Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...
. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails and boxes on their skis. Known as "hot-dogging" in the early 1970s,
it is also commonly referred to as freeskiing, jibbing, as well as many other names, around the world.
History
Ski acrobatics have been exhibited since 1906. Aerial skiing was popularized by John Rudd at the 1908
National Championship Ski Jumping Tournament in
Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...
, in the 1930s by
Olle Rimfors, and again in the 1950s by Olympic gold medalist
Stein Eriksen. Early US competitions were held in the mid-1960s.
In 1969, Waterville Valley Ski Area in New Hampshire, formed the first freestyle instruction program, making the resort the birthplace of freestyle skiing. The following year, Corcoran and Doug Pfeiffer, organized the first National Open Championships of Freestyle Skiing on the Sunnyside trails. In 1971, Waterville Valley Hosted the first Professional Freestyle Skiing Competition, which attracted freestyle skiing legends to Waterville Valley. Some of these competitors, such as Wayne Wong, Floyd Wilkie, and George Askevold, stayed at Waterville Valley as coaches of the first Freestyle Ski Team.
International Ski Federation
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation, also known as FIS (), is the highest international governing body for skiing and snowboarding. It was previously known as the International Ski Federation () until 26 May 2022 when the name was cha ...
(FIS) recognized freestyle skiing as a sport in 1979 and brought in new regulations regarding certification of athletes and jump techniques in an effort to curb the dangerous elements of the competitions. The first
FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup was staged in 1980 and the first
FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships
The FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships is the world championship organized by the FIS for freestyle skiing. It was first organized in 1986 and is now held every odd year. Currently, the disciplines included in the World Championships are Aeri ...
took place in 1986 in
Tignes
Tignes () is a commune in the Tarentaise Valley, in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France, known for the highest skiable area and the longest ski season in Europe. It is located in the Savoie region with good ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. Freestyle skiing was a
demonstration event at the
1988 Winter Olympics
The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Calgary 1988 were a multi-sport event held from February 13 to 28, 1988, with Calgary, Calgary, Alberta as the main host city. This marks the m ...
in
Calgary
Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...
. Mogul skiing was added as an official medal event at the
1992 Winter Olympics
The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Albertville '92 (Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile '92''), were a winter multi-sport event held from 8 to 23 February 1992 in and aroun ...
in
Albertville
Albertville (; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile'') is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Savoie Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in Southeastern France.
It is best k ...
, and the aerials event was added for the
1994 Winter Olympics
The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, were an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Hav ...
in
Lillehammer
Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the munici ...
. In 2011, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved both halfpipe and slopestyle freeskiing events to be added to the
2014 Winter Olympics
The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening ro ...
in
Sochi
Sochi ( rus, Сочи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg, from – ''seaside'') is the largest Resort town, resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi (river), Sochi River, along the Black Sea in the North Caucasus of Souther ...
,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
.
Forms of freestyle skiing
Aerial skiing
Aerialists ski off 2-4 meter jumps, that propel them up to 6 meters in the air (which can be up to 20 meters above the landing height, given the landing slope). Once in the air, aerialists perform multiple flips and twists before landing on a 34 to 39-degree inclined landing hill about 30 meters in length. The top male aerialists can currently perform triple back flips with up to four or five twists.
Aerial skiing is a judged sport, and competitors receive a score based on jump takeoff (20%), jump form (50%) and landing (30%). A
degree of difficulty (DOD) is then factored in for a total score. Skiers are judged on a cumulative score of LIMA two jumps. These scores do not generally carry over to the next round.
Aerialists train for their jumping maneuvers during the summer months by skiing on specially constructed
water ramps and landing in a large swimming pool. An example of this is the
Utah Olympic Park training facility. A water ramp consists of a wooden ramp covered with a special plastic mat that when lubricated with sprinklers allows an athlete to ski down the ramp towards a jump. The skier then skis off the wooden jump and lands safely in a large swimming pool. A burst of air is sent up from the bottom of the pool just before landing to break up the surface tension of the water, thus softening the impact of the landing. Skiers sometimes reinforce the skis that they use for water-ramping with 6mm of fiberglass or cut holes in the front and back in order to soften the impact when landing properly on their skis.
Summer training also includes training on trampolines, diving boards, and other acrobatic or gymnastic training apparatus.
Mogul skiing
Moguls are a series of bumps on a trail formed when skiers push the snow into mounds or piles as they execute short-radius turns. Moguls can also be formed deliberately, by piling mounds of snow.
In competitions, athletes are judged on their technique as well as on their speed by mastering the bumps in a calm yet aggressive way. Usually there are two jumps. In the early days the location was chosen by the competitors. Since the mid-1980s those jumps have become part of the official slope. While at the beginning only upright jumps were allowed, from the mid-1990s onward flips were added as an option.
Moguls has become part of the Olympics since 1992. Canadian athlete
Alexandre Bilodeau has won the Gold Medal twice: 2010 and 2014.
Ski ballet (Acroski)
Ski ballet, later renamed acroski (or "acro"), was a competitive discipline in the formative years of freestyle skiing. Competitors devised routines lasting 3 to 5 minutes and executed to music. The routines consisted of spins, jumps, and flips on a prepared flat course. For a short period of time (in the 1980s) there was also pair ballet competitions, a variation of ballet, where two people performed tricks that not only included spins, jumps and leg crossing but also lifts and sychronic movements and was similar to
ice dancing
Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. A ...
. The routines were scored by judges who assessed the choreography, technical difficulty, and mastery of skills demonstrated by the competitors. Early innovators in the sport were American
Jan Bucher, Park Smalley, Swiss
Conny Kissling and German
Hermann Reitberger. The first skier who performed a one handed pole flip in a world cup competition was German
Richard Schabl in the early 1980s. Acro ski was part of the demonstration at the
1988 Winter Olympics
The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Calgary 1988 were a multi-sport event held from February 13 to 28, 1988, with Calgary, Calgary, Alberta as the main host city. This marks the m ...
in Calgary. The
International Ski Federation
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation, also known as FIS (), is the highest international governing body for skiing and snowboarding. It was previously known as the International Ski Federation () until 26 May 2022 when the name was cha ...
ceased all formal competition of this event after 2000 because they focused on both aerials (1990) and moguls (1992) for making it an Olympic discipline.
Ski cross
Ski cross is based on the snowboarding boardercross. Despite it being a timed racing event, it is often considered part of freestyle skiing because it incorporates terrain features traditionally found in freestyle.
Halfpipe skiing
Halfpipe skiing is the sport of riding snow skis on a half-pipe. Competitors gradually ski to the end of the pipe by doing flips and tricks. It became an Olympic event for the first time at the
2014 Olympic Games in
Sochi
Sochi ( rus, Сочи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg, from – ''seaside'') is the largest Resort town, resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi (river), Sochi River, along the Black Sea in the North Caucasus of Souther ...
,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
.
Slopestyle
In slopestyle, athletes ski or snowboard down a course including a variety of obstacles including rails, jumps, and other
terrain park features. Points are scored for amplitude, originality and quality of tricks.
Twin-tip skis are used and are particularly useful if the skier lands backwards. Slopestyle tricks fall mainly into four categories: spins,
grinds, grabs and
flips. Slopestyle became an
Olympic event, in both skiing and snowboarding forms, at the
2014 Winter Games in
Sochi
Sochi ( rus, Сочи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg, from – ''seaside'') is the largest Resort town, resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi (river), Sochi River, along the Black Sea in the North Caucasus of Souther ...
,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
.
Equipment
Twin-tip skis are used in events such as slopestyle and halfpipe. Mogul skis are used in moguls and sometimes in aerials. Specially designed racing skis are used in ski cross.
Ski bindings took a major design change to include plate bindings mounted to the bottom of the skiers boot to allow for multi-directional release. Ski poles are a staple in the all aspects of freestyle skiing, however, slopestyle athletes have more recently opted to ski without them in order to free their hands for grabs and other personal preferences in their riding.
See also
*
Freestyle skiing at the Winter Olympics
*
FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships
The FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships is the world championship organized by the FIS for freestyle skiing. It was first organized in 1986 and is now held every odd year. Currently, the disciplines included in the World Championships are Aeri ...
References
Sources
* Furrer, Art; Renggli, Sepp (1970) ''Skiakrobatik für jedermann'' Bern: Benteli
* Broze, Matt Charles (1972) ''Freestyle skiing'' Seattle: Wildcat Books
* Johnston, John; Daigle, Michel; Bowie, Darryl (1974) ''Freestyle Skiing: Technique Manual'' Vancouver: Winter Habit Productions
* Luini, Mario; Brunner, André (1975) ''Akroski : alles über Skiakrobatik u. Skikunst'' Bern: Benteli
* United States Ski Association (1977) ''Official freestyle competition rules''
* Mohan, John; Hiltner, Walt (1978) ''Freestyle Skiing'' New York: Winchester Press
* Wieman, Randy; Newman, Robbi (1979) ''Freestyle Skiing: A Complete Guide to the Fundamentals of Hot Dogging'' Angus & Robertson
* Smalley, Park (1986) ''Skiing Freestyle: Official Training Guide of the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team'' Taylor Publishing Company
* Riess, Steven A. (2015
''Sports in America from Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century: An Encyclopedia''Routledge
External links
Waterville Valley, Birthplace of Freestyle SkiingFIS homepageFreestyle skiing – olympic.orgwiki.fis-ski.com The resource of information and knowledge on Freestyle Skiing, Ski Jumping, FIS World Ski Championships
freestylebc.skiThe largest provincial sport organization for freestyle skiing in Canada.
freestylecanada.ski The official site of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association. Your source for moguls, aerials, halfpipe and slopestyle skiing in Canada.
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Winter Olympic sports
Acrobatic sports