To air is human. To BIG AIR is Freestyle!
Freestyle skiing has been a part of the Canadian sport system since the mid 1970s. What started out as a bunch of skiers trying to make the most flamboyant run down a Mogul course, more for fun than anything else has, over the years, evolved into a seven discipline structured and always breath-taking culture that has won Canada more World Cup medals than any other sport.
Over the course of its career the jumps have gotten bigger and the Mogul courses have gotten steeper which has made for a legacy of making spectators’ jaws drop. As the sport has grown coaching techniques have been refined which has resulted in skills that were once only the domain of the elite now being performed by kids of much younger ages.
Canada has seen World Cup and World Championship winners in every discipline. We have been in the Olympics as a full medal status sport since 1992 (Moguls) and 1994 (Aerials).
The late 1990s saw the emergence of the new disciplines of Half Pipe, Table Top, Skier Cross and Slope Style all which feature new and daring ways for the athletes to defy gravity on skis.
Freestyle has been a part of the Canada Winter Games since 1995 where the Mogul event was competed at Marmot Basin in Jasper (co-host with Grande Prairie).
“Aerials” was added when the Games went to Corner Brook. The Aerial event was so popular it shut down the trans-Canada highway and the army had to be brought in to assist with traffic control.
Duals Moguls added more flair when the Games travelled to Campbellton-Bathurst in 2003.
Half Pipe was introduced to the Games in Whitehorse.
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