The ins and outs of Freestyle Skiing

Freestyle as a sport is in a critical situation – there are so many new regulations, that even the athletes have problems keeping up to date. The competitions are hard to follow, the World Cup is a tragedy: only 11 competitors started at this season´s first World Cup round in Mt. Buller.

But there is also a ray of hope: the New School Skiing. The New School Skiing is a freestyle movement coming back to the rules used at the beginning of this sport – helping to make it exciting again. This movement is developed outside of the World Cup circuit via exhibitions organised by, among others, former Freestyle Champions. If the International Federation (FIS) could be inspired by this movement, it will energise Freestyle again.

In my opinion the Olympic Games 2002 could possibly be the last Games with the current rules; after that freestyle will have to evolve if it wants to survive. In the meantime the sporting level is still good despite a lack of newcomers to replace former champions who retired, changed to freeskiing or tragically died like Didier Meda of France and Sandra Schmitt of Germany.

WOMEN

One of my favourites is definitely the Grand Dame of mogul skiing, Tatjana Mittermayer (Germany). She has been skiing for so many years. Despite her parental break two years ago, she is, at 37 years old, still one of the best. She will have to prove it to two young champions - Kari Traa (Norway) and Aiko Uemura (Japan). This clash of generations will be very interesting to follow.

The Australian skier Jacqui Cooper is my favourite in the Aerials competitions. She has been competing for a long-time and is one of the few women who can do a triple-somersault with one twist. Her main rivals are Alla Tsuper (Belarus), Nannan Xu (China) and Veronika Bauer (Canada).

MEN

In the moguls competitions, the two main favourites are France’s Richard Gay and Canada’s Stephane Rochon, both very experienced. But surprises can traditionally often happen in the moguls and the Finnish Mikko Ronkainen and Janne Lahtela are serious outsiders.

In the aerials competitions the American Eric Bergoust should be the winner. He dominates the standard programme and does the most perfect triple-somersault with four twists and the most beautiful jumps.

For me Freestyle is still the most interesting and unique sport for TV spectators, especially if you love dances in the air and rock’n roll in the mogul field!

Guido Heuber is Eurosport’s Freestyle expert commentator in Germany. Guido was a member of the German national team from 1988 to 1990 and participated in the 1989 World Junior Championships at only 19 years old. Unfortunately a serious injury put an end to his career in January 1991. He was coach of the Junior German national team from 1991 to 1993.