FIS News
Freestyle Skiing season preview with Joseph Fitzgerald
On the eve of the opening of the 2014/15 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup season, FIS Freestyle Skiing Coordinator Joseph Fitzgerald shared his insights on the upcoming winter.
What’s new this season?
The start of our 35th season is a time for some renewal and some stabilisation. We need to come back to the core of our discipline to rediscover and refocus on the basic elements.
Coming out of Vancouver 2010, we did a renovation of aerials with new formats and systems. The Freestyle Committee wanted to refine moguls and move it back into a skiing event. Even with this direction, we will see new jumps being performed. These changes should mix it up and we are waiting to see who can adapt the fastest. There is also a real renewed emphasis on our dual moguls competition.
Meanwhile, we have several new Organisers, one in ski cross with Tegernsee near Munich (GER) and the other one with Lake Tazawako (JPN) for moguls. One great location to have back on the calendar is Tignes (FRA) with the ski halfpipe final. Tignes hosted our first World Championships in 1986 and our first Olympic events in 1992 with moguls and held 25 years of Freestyle Skiing competitions.
Can you tell us a bit more about the integration of cities into the calendar and other emphasis?
Beijing, (CHN), Moscow (RUS), Minsk (BLR) and Calgary (CAN) are all true city competitions, with the first three being aerial World Cups and the last one a moguls event. In the past, we've had 30,000 to 40,000 spectators attend these competitions and it's fantastic to bring the sport to large numbers. The aerials competition in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Winter Games opening ceremony stadium, the ‘Birds Nest’ was already a great success last season.
This also creates a real contrast, one week in the mountain resorts and the next week in the city. We also have some very famous and exclusive mountain resorts on the calendar with Deer Valley (USA), Arosa (SUI) and Megeve (FRA).
This season’s highlight will be the World Championships in Kreischberg (AUT) in January 2015. What can we expect?
This is going to be the biggest Freestyle Skiing event ever, and since it is combined with Snowboarding for the first time it will be a real challenge. It’s appropriate that the first staging is happening in Austria with such a rich tradition of winter sports and very experienced Organisers. Media interest is very high and it's really going to be a two-week festival of action sports that has only been brought together on the Olympic stage. Coming off of the great presentations in Sochi, we hope that we can duplicate this and continue to promote our disciplines.
What are the most important tasks for Freestyle Skiing in the near future?
We had double and triple growth in our events with the number of competitions and competitors in the past ten years, so we need to manage this effectively. At times, it is difficult to get enough qualified officials and Organisers together, but we are moving things forward. We need to work with our National Ski Associations to educate future competition officials and judges.
After Sochi, we aim to capitalise on the great success of the Freestyle Skiing events with the support of some international sponsors. We really shine at major competitions like the Olympic Games, where we can gain a very wide distribution of exposure to mass audiences. We have always known we have a viable and exciting sports entertainment product.
What’s new this season?
The start of our 35th season is a time for some renewal and some stabilisation. We need to come back to the core of our discipline to rediscover and refocus on the basic elements.
Coming out of Vancouver 2010, we did a renovation of aerials with new formats and systems. The Freestyle Committee wanted to refine moguls and move it back into a skiing event. Even with this direction, we will see new jumps being performed. These changes should mix it up and we are waiting to see who can adapt the fastest. There is also a real renewed emphasis on our dual moguls competition.
Meanwhile, we have several new Organisers, one in ski cross with Tegernsee near Munich (GER) and the other one with Lake Tazawako (JPN) for moguls. One great location to have back on the calendar is Tignes (FRA) with the ski halfpipe final. Tignes hosted our first World Championships in 1986 and our first Olympic events in 1992 with moguls and held 25 years of Freestyle Skiing competitions.
Can you tell us a bit more about the integration of cities into the calendar and other emphasis?
Beijing, (CHN), Moscow (RUS), Minsk (BLR) and Calgary (CAN) are all true city competitions, with the first three being aerial World Cups and the last one a moguls event. In the past, we've had 30,000 to 40,000 spectators attend these competitions and it's fantastic to bring the sport to large numbers. The aerials competition in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Winter Games opening ceremony stadium, the ‘Birds Nest’ was already a great success last season.
This also creates a real contrast, one week in the mountain resorts and the next week in the city. We also have some very famous and exclusive mountain resorts on the calendar with Deer Valley (USA), Arosa (SUI) and Megeve (FRA).
This season’s highlight will be the World Championships in Kreischberg (AUT) in January 2015. What can we expect?
This is going to be the biggest Freestyle Skiing event ever, and since it is combined with Snowboarding for the first time it will be a real challenge. It’s appropriate that the first staging is happening in Austria with such a rich tradition of winter sports and very experienced Organisers. Media interest is very high and it's really going to be a two-week festival of action sports that has only been brought together on the Olympic stage. Coming off of the great presentations in Sochi, we hope that we can duplicate this and continue to promote our disciplines.
What are the most important tasks for Freestyle Skiing in the near future?
We had double and triple growth in our events with the number of competitions and competitors in the past ten years, so we need to manage this effectively. At times, it is difficult to get enough qualified officials and Organisers together, but we are moving things forward. We need to work with our National Ski Associations to educate future competition officials and judges.
After Sochi, we aim to capitalise on the great success of the Freestyle Skiing events with the support of some international sponsors. We really shine at major competitions like the Olympic Games, where we can gain a very wide distribution of exposure to mass audiences. We have always known we have a viable and exciting sports entertainment product.
Source: fis-ski.com
