Slopestyle

Slopestyle is a winter sport in which athletes ski or snowboard down a course including a variety of obstacles including rails, jumps and other terrain park features. Points are scored for amplitude, originality and quality of tricks. The discipline has its roots in action sports like skateboarding and BMX and has very successfully crossed over into the snow sports worlds of skiing and snowboard.^[1] Twin-tip skis are used and are particularly useful if the skier lands backwards. Slopestyle tricks fall mainly into four categories: spins, grinds, grabs and flips.

Slopestyle is one of the freestyle disciplines, along with moguls, aerials, cross, and half-pipe.

History

Slopestyle became an Olympic event, in both skiing and snowboarding forms, at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.^[2] The very first Olympic champions in Slopestyle Skiing were American Joss Christensen for the men and Canadian Dara Howell for the women. The first Olympic champions for the snowboarding Slopestyle were, both Americans, Sage Kotsenburg for the men and Jamie Anderson for the women.

Competition

Several types of slopestyle rails

In competition athletes are judged on:^[1]

• Air: height of jumps
• DD: degree of difficulty of the tricks
• Execution: How well the athletes perform their tricks
• Overall: The whole package, including the athlete’s personal style.

References