Freestyle skiing

Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline included into the programme of the Winter Olympics. It comprises a downhill obstacle races as well as aerial skiing.

Sports Disciplines included into the Winter Universiade 2019

MOGUL

The athletes go down a bumpy track with two kickers.Moguls, or snow bumps, are placed in the chessboard pattern on the slope. While going down the athlete must complete two jumps from the kickers.

DUAL MOGUL

Two athletes go down the blue and the red tracks at the same time.

AERIALS

In this sport the athlete performs complex aerial acrobatics on skis from a kicker of special shape, which is built on the alpine skiing slopes. The performance routine of leading aerialists includes double and triple flips with spins.

SKI CROSS

Ski crossing involves going downhill and navigating between obstacles.Four athletes go down at the same time, and each tries to win. Freestyle athletes spend half of their time going through the turns, as they pass kickers, waves and clear gates.

Slopestyle

The skier performs a series of acrobatic jumps using ramps, pyramids, bars and rails of various height located in a particular order along the entire course. The athlete performs tricks while passing different obstacles like ramps, quarter-pipes, pyramids, boxes, rails, etc. The whole length of a slopestyle course is marked by these obstacles that are grouped in sectors that vary in number, characteristics and complexity depending on the level of competitions.

Team Aerials

Each of three team members performs a complicated acrobatic jump. The results of the jumps are summed up and the team with the highest score becomes the winner.

Facts

The first World Championship in this sport was held in Tignes, France, in 1986. A record, 3 victories were achieved by Edgar Grospiron (France): in 1989,1991 and 1995.

At the Winter Olympics in Sochi the athletes in ski-cross reached the speed of 70 km per hour.

Russian freestyle skiers won 2 bronze medals in ski-cross and aerials at 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Every year World Cups in aerials are held in Moscow and in ski-cross in Miass, Chelyabinsk Oblast.

History

The first competitions, which included alpine skiing and acrobatic events, were held in Attis, NH, in 1966 thanks to the efforts ofNorwegian Stein Eriksen, who is considered the father of freestyle. Eriksen is an Olympic champion and three-times world champion in alpine skiing.

In the 1960s the new popular skiing discipline was known in the US as “hot doggin.” Back at the time it had no clear rules and was quite dangerous.

Freestyle history as we know the sport today started in 1971 when the state of New Hampshire in the US held the first official competitions.

In 1978, the International Skiing Federation officially recognized freestyle and formulated official rules aimed at making this kind of skiing safer.

The Freestyle Cup has been held since 1978. The first world championship was held in France in 1986. In 1988 freestyle appeared as an exhibition sport in the program of the Olympic Games.Mogul skiing was introduced into the Olympic program in 1992, aerial acrobatics — in 1994, ski crossing — in 2010, half-pipe and slope-pipe — in 2014.

Edgar Grospiron from France became the first Olympic champion in mogul skiing, and American Donna Winebrecht became the first champion among women.