Today we will look at one of the most amazing sports. Many people like winter sports, but many pros prefer freestyle. Just like the pros in the gambling world prefer to play on nationalcasino.com/hi. Today we will figure out what is so attractive about freestyle and how it originated.
History of Freestyle
Freestyle skiing is a type of skiing, after seeing which, it is impossible to take your eyes off.
The wonders of acrobatics on skis attract more and more fans both among fans and among young people who want to master this extreme sport. And although freestyle skiing is quite a young kind of skiing, it has its own story, which we decided to tell.
The first ski jump with an element of acrobatics was made back in 1860 in the mountains of Norway.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the book “New Possibilities of Skiing” was published, which described such a sports discipline as ski ballet. The author was Dr. Fritz Ruel, an alpine skier and mountaineer. At that time, freestyle elements were used in winter resorts to attract tourists.
As a separate sport, freestyle was formed in the 50s of the last century.
Stein Eriksen, a professional alpine skier, winner of the Olympics and World Championships is called the father of this exciting sport. Acrobatics and downhill skiing become the basic basis.
The first competitions were held in the American resort of Attila in 1966.
Then the athletes themselves chose tricks and skating techniques.
In the 60-70s, the American Bob Burns invented the basic style of freestyle called “hot dogging”.
Tom LeRoy, John Clendenin, Wayne Wong made a great contribution to its development.
In 1979, the FIS officially recognized freestyle as a sport. At the same time, strict requirements are being introduced for athletes in order to reduce injuries. In the pursuit of dangerous stunts, athletes were seriously injured, there were deaths, so strict rules and restrictions were needed.
Today, Olympic freestyle disciplines are officially considered:
- aerial acrobatics
- mogul
- slopestyle
- ski cross
- big air
- half pipe.
After the first World Cup in France (1986), the new sport becomes simply mega-popular. In 1988, freestyle was presented in Calgary as an exhibition program, and in 1992 in Albertville it was already the official discipline of the Winter Olympics.
Mogul – the discipline of freestyle skiing, consists of downhill skiing on a bumpy slope (on bumps, or moguls) and performing jumps on trampolines. Maneuvering between the bumps, the athlete constantly turns his legs with skis in one direction, then in the other. The descent route contains two jumps on which the skier demonstrates jumping. The performance is evaluated according to the following criteria: the technique of turns, the complexity of jumps and the quality of their performance, as well as the time of descent. The variation is a pair (parallel) mogul, when two athletes go on a parallel course.
Ski cross is a discipline of freestyle skiing. Ski cross competitions are held in two stages: qualification and finals. During the qualification, the participants pass the track with obstacles in the form of stained glass windows and various jumps for a time one at a time. The 32 best skiers get into the final stage of the competition, they are divided into fours and 8 races are held in fours.
In the final races, skiers start 4 people at a time and pass the track, trying to overtake each other and reach the finish line first. Two participants of each race, the first to reach the finish line, enter the next stage. At the end of the competition, two finals are held – big and small. In the small final, participants compete for 5-8 places, and in the big final for 1-4 places.