[Photo: ifyouski.com]

Freestyle has come a long way since it exploded on the skiing world as hot-dogging in the early seventies. Back then skiers with names like The Silver Bullet, Boogie Mann and Wayne Wong rebelled against the straight-jacket of Alpine racing and gathered to compare tricks like Franconia Super Dooper Wedeln and the Slow Dog Noodle. Lunacy, fun and illegal substances were the order of the day. The crowds were delighted, and by the mid-seventies a professional circuit with half a million dollars prize money had grown up in the United States.

Disaster struck when two young skiers, lured by prizes of big money and cars, were crippled attempting double somersaults on unsafe jump sites. Sponsors began pulling out and the circuit collapsed. In 1979 the International Ski Federation (FIS) stepped in to ensure the survival and safety of the sport, renaming it Freestyle (competitors now cringe when it is referred to as hot-dogging). Since then, the sport has gone from strength to strength, boasting its first World Cup in 1980, demonstration in the Calgary Olympics in 1988, and the inclusion of moguls as a full medal discipline from the 1992 Albertville Olympics and of aerials from Lillehammer 1994.

There are three disciplines: moguls, aerials and acro. A combined event used to be decided on all three of these, but it is rarely seen in these days of specialisation by the athletes. Performances are scored according to tightly specified criteria by a panel of 5 or 7 judges. As the sport matured, the criteria became ever more closely defined. This has had the advantage of improving the consistency of judging, although sadly it has largely taken the 'Free' out of Freestyle.