One of the winter sports that has recently entered the Olympic program is ski freestyle. This name came from the confluence of two English words - “free” and “style”, therefore, this sports discipline can also be called freestyle skiing .
A bit of history
The pioneers of this sport are daredevil skiers who in the early sixties of the twentieth century surprised their eccentricities with vacationers at ski resorts in the Alps. What only they did not get up! Sometimes the amusing spectators of these tricks amused, and sometimes even horrified. Skiers were called nothing more than crazy or crazy. And to the question of why they so risk their health and even life, free-style lovers briefly answered: “From boredom”. Then they did not even suspect that these “eccentricities” in the near future would be not just a common hobby or entertainment for extreme people, but would develop into a new sport - freestyle. And if they had learned that in a few decades it would also become an Olympic discipline, they certainly would not have believed it.
Freestyle: development and distribution around the world
Later, such skiing became popular not only in European resorts, but also in the mountains of North America, Japan, the Himalayas. Every year the army of freestyle fans increased. Everyone tried to bring new elements and tricks to this style. The first freestyle competitions were not held in Europe - in the homeland of this sport, but in the mountains of the USA in 1971. Gradually, three official sports disciplines took shape: the mogul, ski ballet (acrosking) and ski acrobatics. Since 1978, multi-stage competitions have been held in all of these species.
Freestyle - Extreme Sports
With the development of this all-around skiing replenished with new disciplines. Along with mogul, acrosking and ski acrobatics, new directions and styles have appeared: ski (air) acrobatics, ski cross, slopestyle, halfpipe, newskul and others. By the way, in 1999, acrosking dropped out of the official programs of the Olympic competitions. All these types demanded incredible dexterity, courage and bravado from athletes. After all, they are accompanied by a huge risk to health, being more than traumatic. However, the most important thing that freestylers should have been different from was originality. In a word, this sport - freestyle - grouped around itself extraordinary personalities whose common goal was to surprise with their dexterity and ingenuity, and to measure their strength with other talented athletes.
Freestyle - Olympic sport
By 1984, freestyle had become popular all over the world. In the same year, it was decided to include this sport, freestyle (photo in the article), in the Olympic program. Athletes from the USSR, USA, Norway, Canada, France, China, Australia and Russia competed for the first time at the Olympic Games in Sarajevo (Yugoslavia). The first freestyle champions were representatives from France and the United States. They won the Mogul - skiing down a hilly slope (250 meters), during which it was necessary to perform two original tricks. At the next Olympics, the program included acrobatic freestyle. Skiing is not the most convenient sports equipment with which you can perform the most difficult somersaults, jumps and more, however, the performances of experienced athletes were so beautiful that they acted fascinatingly on a multi-million audience. After that, the army of freestyle enthusiasts increased several times, and this sport was considered the most popular among winter species. At the next Olympics in Calgary (Canada), a huge audience gathered at the competitions in this sport, which could be compared in number, except perhaps with fans of figure skating and hockey.
Features of ski acrobatics
Elements of acrobatics are present in various sports: diving, sports and rhythmic gymnastics, etc. Ski acrobatics is considered a kind of creative sports discipline, which is a relatively young sport freestyle. Here, experienced athletes use a special springboard to carry out a series of two jumps, each of which is complex in its own way. There are three types of profiled jumps: triple or large (slope 70 degrees, height 4 m 5 cm), double or medium (slope 65 degrees, height three and a half meters) and somersault, or small (slope 55 degrees, height 2 meters and 10 cm). For landing, choose a mountain with loose snow. How is the skill of athletes evaluated? Judges earn points for their technical skills when they are separated from the springboard, the clarity of the flight path, the originality of the figure and the accuracy of the touchdown.
Other meanings of the word freestyle
As previously noted, this term comes from two English words and literally translates as “free style”.
Consequently, they can be designated as a freestyle in other sports, as well as completely different phenomena. So, freestyle, in addition to being a kind of skiing, it is also a type of parachuting, a
type of skateboarding and motorcycling, the ability to juggle with a soccer ball, dancing to music with a dog and much more. This term today refers to various sites, travel agencies, improvisations in rap, music. In Russia, in the nineties of the last century, a very popular pop group called Freestyle existed.