Freestyle Skiing - History

History

Freestyle skiing began in the 1930s, when Norwegian skiers began performing acrobatics during alpine and cross-country training. Later, non-competitive professional skiing exhibitions in the United States featured performances of what would later be called freestyle. Aerial skiing was developed in about 1950 by Olympic gold medalist Stein Eriksen.

Organized freestyle skiing started in the mogul fields, the bumpy natural terrain that allowed skiers to show off with tricks, jumps and incredible turning abilities - freestyle mogul skiers were "hot-doggers" in the day. In 1971 Aspen, Colorado hosted a small mogul competition on the legendary Ridge of Bell, one of the most challenging mogul runs in the country. As the sport quickly evolved, hot-shot mogul skiers like John Clendenin, Scott Brooksbank, Bill O'Leary and "Airborne" Eddie Ferguson gave rise to the sport and in 1973, Sun Valley, Idaho hosted the first U.S. Freestyle Championships which John Clendenin went on to win. By 1975 there were two competing freestyle organizations, Professional Freestyle Associates (PFA) run by Curtis Oberhansly and the International Freestyle Skiers Association (IFSA) run by Bernie Weichsel. Under PFA and IFSA, the world's best freestyle skiers competed for prize money in three disciplines - moguls, aerials and ballet in competitions in the United States, Canada and Europe. Wayne Wong gave the sport instant exposure starring in a highly visible Pepsi TV commercial.

In 1975 Snowbird, Utah hosted the World Freestyle Championships, and ABC Wide World of Sports televised event sponsored by Chevrolet and others. The event to date, attracted the most spectators in the sport's short history. It also represented a turning point, as young talent emerged from around the world, the likes of Ferguson, Clendenin and Wayne Wong, had given way to an new field of talent like "Little" Jack Taylor, Peter Johnson in Moguls, Eddie Lincoln, Bob "BadBob" Salerno and Frank Bare Jr. in Aerials and Scott Willingham and Mark Steigemeier in Ballet. And women's freestyle was now a full fledged sport with pioneers like Suzie Chaffee, Genia Fuller, Karen Huntoon, Marion and Ellen Post and Penelope Street redefining the sport for women. By this point the sport's more serious organization was drawing internationally with notable Canadians such as John Eaves which went on to win world titles, Francois Brosseau and Michel Daigle who both went on to train many other successful Canadian freestyle skiers.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) recognized freestyle as a sport in 1979 and brought in new regulations regarding certification of athletes and jump techniques in an effort to curb the dangerous elements of the competitions. The first World Cup series was staged in 1980 and the first World Championships took place in 1986 in Tignes, France. Freestyle skiing was a demonstration event at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Mogul skiing was added as an official medal event at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, and the aerials event was added for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.

In the late 1990s a new style of freestyle skiing began to grow in popularity. This style of skiing was created out of frustration with the highly competitive nature of other freestyle disciplines. Many skiers began performing tricks in the terrain parks, which were at the time reserved for snowboarders. The sport was originally referred to as newschool skiing, and still is. Newschool is much more open ended than Aerials or Moguls and is more accessible to the general public. The sport is also more appealing to younger generations and is similar in nature to snowboarding