Freestyle Skiing - Part D - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

(Based on the book, “Winter Olympics:  An Insider’s Guide to the Legends, the Lore, and the Games”, Vancouver Edition, copyright 2008 by Ron C. Judd)

Format, Rules and Strategy:

All freestyle skiing events except the newest, ski cross, have a scoring system.

In aerials, competitors are judged on jump takeoff style (20 percent), jump technique and form (50 percent), and the landing (30 percent).  As in other sports such as platform diving, a degree-of-difficulty factor is then applied to determine a total score.  Aerials competitions are split into two categories:  upright, in which the skier’s feet can’t go over his or her head, and inverted, which opens the door to the most complicated flips, turns, and spins.

In moguls skiing, racers are judged on mogul turns (50 percent), jump quality (25 percent), and speed (25 percent) by seven judges.  The high and the low scores are tossed out.  The full field of competition skis one run, with the top 16 advancing to a second round, which is either a single ski run or a dual run, in which competitors race side by side.

In ski cross, the first skier across the finish line - barring disqualification or penalties – is the winner.  In preliminary rounds, the first two skiers typically advance.  In the final round, the top four race in a winner-takes-all.

Training and Equipment:

Aerials and moguls skiers use short, lightweight skis and generally wear typical ski clothing – not skintight bodysuits.  Because speed is not as crucial here, the aerodynamic properties of garments are not a major issue.

Most first-time observers marveling at the graceful aerial ballet conducted by aerials and moguls skiers wonder how the skier took that first leap into a complicated jump without killing him- or herself.  The answer is simple:  off-snow training.  All freestyle skiers begin by practicing their jumps into water, usually a large swimming pool.

The in-run ramp is made of wood covered with a specialized plastic mat lubricated with sprinklers.  A skier’s splashdown is softened by a burst of air bubbles from the bottom of the pool, which breaks up the surface of the water.  Freestyle skiers also train in the summer on trampolines, diving boards, and gymnastic equipment, as well as the full range of conditioning equipment.

HISTORY’S HITS AND MISSES:

Freestyle skiing dates back to the 1930s in Norway, where hot-dogging skiers began doing tricks while training for alpine or cross-country racing.  Norwegian alpine gold medalist, Stein Eriksen, now the unelected mayor of Deer Valley, Utah, is the godfather of aerials, introducing the technique somewhere around 1950.  He became known for his ability to do front and back flips at ski demonstrations in Vermont and Colorado.

The sport existed in the ski world’s fringes through the 1960s and ‘70s, with many alpine and Nordic skiers insisting to this day that freestyle skiing is a hot-dogger’s pursuit, akin to skateboarding, not real skiing.

But the International Ski Federation recognized freestyle skiing as a sport in 1979, introducing new rules designed to make the endeavour fairer and less dangerous.  The sport got its own World Cup circuit in 1980.  The first World Championships took place in France in 1986.  Freestyle skiing debuted as a demonstration sport in the Calgary Games in 1988, with aerials, moguls, and (God forbid!) acro-skiing, a sort of ski-tip ballet, which was not very appealing to watch.

Freestyle managed to survive that inauspicious debut, and moguls became a medal sport at the 1992 Albertville Games.  Aerials were added to the category for the Lillehammer Games of 1994, but acro has yet to raise its head again.

And, it might not, now that ski cross has been added to the medals menu.  Ski cross has been competed on the World Cup level since November 2003.  It’s one of a series of “new school” freestyle ski disciplines that include snowboard-inspired events such as halfpipe, big air contests, and slopestyle – rail-sliding and jumping down a course in a man made terrain park.  All are conducted on skis with twin tips for frontward and backward skiing, a design that revolutionized trick skiing beginning in the late 1990s.

copyright 2014, Anne Shier.  All rights reserved.