Freestyle Skiing - Olympic fever!
It’s Olympic time again, and I’m getting my own adrenalin rush just watching the freestyle skiing events on TV! I’ve never been daring enough to participate in any type of “hot-dogging”, as it is commonly known, but being a ski enthusiast, I get a thrill watching the great talents strut their stuff. Freestyle skiing has not always been a major Olympic event, like it is today; in fact, freestyle skiing is altogether a relatively new concept in ski nation.
Turning back a page in history, freestyle skiing developed over time, and can be traced back to Norway. In the 1930’s, Scandinavian Alpine skiers trained by incorporating simple forms of aerials into their practice sessions. In the 1960’s, North Americans picked up on this news, and further developed it into a sport by adding new tricks and techniques. Basically, it was a competitive sport in the making, with no well-defined rules, and ski-loving adventure seekers, began to stretch the limits (hot-dogging) in public exhibitions.
Freestyle Skiing eventually made its way into being an official Olympic event by 1992, but only the Moguls event was featured. By 1994, official Olympic freestyle skiing competitions included both Moguls and Aerials, and today, millions of people across the world watch as athletes perform amazing and spectacular tricks in the air and on the ground. The two main disciplines in Olympic Freestyle skiing are Aerials and Moguls.
Aerial freestyle skiing requires special lightweight and curved tip skis that are called “twintip” skis, specially designed to flex in mid-air, but they also allow a skier the ability to launch off ramps and land. The Aerials competition is a mix of acrobatic and ski techniques. Freestyle skiing terms such as, “triple back somersault”, become common household names as international audiences watch athletes ski down the mountain and propel off a ramp traveling to over 60 feet in the air, perform twists, spins and turns, and try to stick their landings. How well an athlete executes a maneuver, and its degree of difficulty, determines the score. The most impressive athlete, on the slopes, will walk home with the gold.
Mogul skiers require a shorter ski that is fast and allows for control during a series of aggressive turns. The freestyle skiing Mogul competition is a combination of speed, maneuverability through moguls, and aerials. Viewers enjoy watching the thrilling steep downhill race for the gold as athletes make their way through a challenging series of huge snow-covered bumps, and perform aerial maneuvers (such as the “helicopter”) at a high rate of speed, all while making it look easy! The Mogul course includes two specially designed air bumps, which are used as take off ramps so competitors can perform aerial maneuvers. Scores are determined by control and technical quality of turns, execution of aerial jumps, degree of difficulty, and speed.
Ah, yes! The excitement of the Winter Games is here at last! Once every four years, the world unites to watch the Olympics; audiences cheer on their favorite top athletes, and scrutinize the judges. Its action-packed competition at its best, and dream TV for sports fanatics and non-competitive, alike. It’s that time of year when we permit ourselves to become couch potatoes, and experience “The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat”!