Freestyle Skiing

Cypress Mountain, 30 minutes outside of Vancouver, is the venue most likely to bring podium celebrations for the Australian Team. Dale Begg-Smith is defending moguls champion and in women’s aerials Lydia Lassila is World No.1 and Jacqui Cooper World Championship bronze medallist.

Ski cross - which is like BMX racing on skis - makes it Olympic debut in 2010 and is sure to be a crowd favourite. The discipline of freestyle skiing has only been a medal sport on the Olympic program since 1992. Medals were won in moguls events at Albertville with aerial skiers needing to wait until Lillehammer in 1994 for full medal status. At every Games the degree of difficulty and speed becomes more and more mind amazing.

World No.1 aerial skiier Lydia Lassila explains how her sport works, what the judges look for and the equipment used.

Australia and freestyle skiing

Thanks to astute talent identification, the Olympic Winter Institute and phenomenal athletes Australia has been a force in freestyle skiing for over 15 years - winning Olympic medals, producing World Champions and over 100 world cup medals.

Women’s aerials has been the particular strength throughout this time. It all began when Kirstie Marshall placed 6th in women’s aerials at Lillehammer 1994. At the time it was the nation’s best Olympic result. There was great excitement as the Nagano 1998 Games approached with both Marshall and Jacqui Cooper considered as strong favourites. Unfortunately they both had falls and failed to qualify for the final. Four years later at Salt Lake City Alisa Camplin from Melbourne became the Olympic aerials champion.

Tragedy struck in the week before the competition with Cooper shattering her knee in training. 2002 also saw the arrival of a young Lydia Ierodiaconou who achieved an outstanding result, placing 8th in the final.

Four years later in Torino, Camplin on the comeback from serious injury produced another sensational performance to take bronze. Cooper who had broken the world record in the preliminaries finished 8th and this time it was tragedy for Ierodiaconou who shattered her knee in the prelims while in podium form. It is time for both Cooper and Lassila (Ierodiaconou) to leave an Olympics fulfilled.

In the moguls, Australia has been strongly represented by the men. The four-time Olympian, Adrian Costa, placed 14th at both the Albertville 1992 and Lillehammer 1994 Games. Nick Cleaver’s 11th place at Albertville was the best Aussie result until Dale Begg-Smith crushed the opposition at Torino to become Australia’s third Winter Olympic gold medallist. Begg-Smith will defend his title in his hometown of Vancouver after recovering from a serious knee injury in early 2009.

Moguls is an event that combines aerials and alpine. Ramone Cooper explains.

Competition Format / Events

Moguls
The format for the men’s and ladies’ moguls competitions is identical. Each event consists of a qualification and a final with each competitor skiing the moguls course (1,162m) once in each round.

A computer draw at the team captains’ meeting on the night before the competition decides the start order for qualifications. The top 20 men and 20 ladies qualify for their final competition, when they compete again in reverse order, starting with the 20th-place finisher. Scores from the qualification round do not count in the final, unless the final cannot be held.

Competitors are judged on three basic components as follows:
• Turns — 50% of the score
• Air — 25% of the score
• Speed — 25% of the score

Aerials
The format for the men’s and ladies’ aerials competitions is identical. All competitors compete in a qualification phase consisting of two jumps with the scores added together. The top 12 ladies and 12 men qualify for the final, which consists of a further two jumps with the qualifying scores not carrying over. In the final, the competitors jump in reverse order of their qualification rank. The remainder of the field is ranked according to the results in the qualification round. In the case of severe weather conditions, either phase (qualification or finals) may be shortened to one round, or only the final may take place.

The competitors are judged on three basic components as follows:
• Air — 20% of the score
• Form — 50 % of the score
• Landing — 30% of the score

The competitor must announce his or her planned jump immediately before entering the starting gate. If this manoeuvre is not performed, the competitor may receive no score (RNS).

Ski Cross
The format for the men’s and ladies’ ski cross competitions is identical. There are two phases in ski cross for each event: the qualification round and the final round.

In the qualification round all competitors ski two (2) timed runs. The best time of the two runs determines the qualification ranking and competitors start in the same order for both runs. In severe weather conditions, only one qualification run may take place. The qualification bibs are numbered according to the start order.

The final round is based on 32 competitors. The final round consists of: 1/8 final, a quarter-final, a semifinal, a small final, and a final. There will be a maximum of four (4) skiers per heat. The first two (2) skiers advance to the next round. The competitors are placed in first round heats (1/8 final or quarter-final) based on their qualification round rank. Ranking at the finish of a heat is determined by the order of the competitors as they cross the finish line. In the case thatmore than one competitor does not cross the finish line, the competitor who made it the farthest down the course receives the better ranking. The finalists’ bibs will be Red, Green, Blue and Yellow.

If two or more competitors have an unbreakable tie (photo-finish) in the medal round, they are both awarded the same medal.