FREESTYLE & FREESKI
That's what it's about...
The freestyle disciplines are an outstanding highlight and promise incredible action. In the freeski, moguls and aerials disciplines, everything revolves around spectacular tricks, breathtaking jumps and creativity. The ski cross competition combines speed, skill and courage; a battle of man versus man or woman versus woman. Find out more about these fascinating freestyle disciplines below.
Ski cross
In ski cross, several athletes compete against each other simultaneously on a course full of bumps, jumps, steep banked curves and narrow passes, delivering gripping head-to-head races. The athletes not only have to prove their technical expertise and speed, but also their tactical skills to cross the finish line first.
The competition involves a series of heats with the best athlete in each advancing to the next round. Ski cross is a spectacle of pure adrenaline and captivates spectators with breathtaking overtaking manoeuvres and action-packed races.
Freeski
The fascinating and dynamic sport of freeski is the two-boarded counterpart to freestyle snowboarding. The freeski athletes are out to impress the judges with bold execution and individual style. Combining technique, creativity and bravery, they perform breathtaking tricks in three captivating disciplines – slopestyle, big air and halfpipe – constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible.
Photo: Sandro Anderes
Big air
Big air is all about daring jumps and breathtaking aerial acrobatics. The athletes launch themselves into the air from a gigantic ramp, the kicker, and perform breathtaking twists, grabs and other acrobatic tricks while in flight. The aim is to overcome the limits of gravity and achieve a perfect landing. The athletes' performance is marked by judges who take into account the difficulty of the tricks, the style of execution and, of course, the perfect landing.
Halfpipe
In the halfpipe discipline, the heart of the freeski world, athletes showcase their boundless creativity, technical precision and individual style as they speed up the walls of the halfpipe and perform spectacular tricks that defy gravity. Depending on the length of the pipe, the athletes perform five to eight impressive tricks, jumping up to five metres above the edge of the ramp. It's not just about the height of the jumps, but also the difficulty of the tricks, the style and the total number of moves performed.
Slopestyle
In this competition, the athletes show off their creativity, technique and stylistic confidence on a varied course full of jumps, rails, boxes and other obstacles, as well as slide elements. The slopestyle course resembles a skate park and offers the athletes plenty of opportunity to demonstrate individuality and creativity by showcasing their unique style. The freeski slopestyle performance is assessed by judges who evaluate the difficulty, variety and combination of tricks, the height of the jumps, style and overall execution.
Aerials and moguls
Aerials
This event was once part of a discipline known as ski acrobatics. The athletes hurl themselves into the air from a ramp up to 4 metres high to perform breathtaking tricks and twists. They jump up to 15 metres almost vertically into the air, doing triple somersaults with up to five twists. The competition starts with a qualification jump, with the top twelve athletes advancing to a final jump. This is judged by a total of five judges, and the landing by two, with the total score multiplied by the difficulty rating of the jump.
Aerials mixed team
Each team consists of three athletes of the team's choice. The only requirement is that there must be at least one man and one woman in each team. Otherwise, the same requirements/conditions and judging criteria apply as in the individual competition.
Photo: Fabian Gattlen
Moguls
The athletes race down a slope interspersed with numerous bumps and hills – known as moguls – at the highest possible speed, all the way to the finish. This is about speed, elegance and dynamics. There are also two jumps to perform. In addition to the time, judges also take into account the technique, rhythm and degree of difficulty and execution of the jumps.
Dual moguls
This is a knockout competition. The athletes start at the same time. The rules are identical to the individual competition. It is not necessarily the faster athlete who wins, but the athlete with the better overall performance across the run.
