The freestyle skiing events coming to Lausanne 2020

The many thrills and spills of freestyle skiing are coming to Lausanne 2020 in January.

Competitors will be looking to trick, spin and flip their way to gold in the Halfpipe, Slopestyle and Big Air.

The Ski Cross also returns, with its breathless knockout format testing skiers to their very limit.

You don’t want to miss the freestyle skiing at the Youth Olympic Games, and here’s a rundown of what to expect this January.

How to watch freestyle skiing at Youth Olympic Games

Olympic Channel will stream 300 hours of action from the 13 days of competition in Lausanne 2020 with a dedicated Winter YOG channel available on olympicchannel.com, YouTube and connected devices such as Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Android TV and Roku.

There will be an action-packed daily live show featuring news, highlights, trending stories and interviews in a fun and interactive format streamed on Facebook, Twitter and olympicchannel.com, plus a daily Olympic Channel Podcast featuring insightful interviews with personalities from across the Olympic world.

Fans can also follow Olympic Channel's coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to learn more about the event, while a full schedule of events - including online streaming details can be found here.

Freestyle skiing location and dates

The freestyle skiing events take place in Leysin and Villars from January 18-22 at Lausanne 2020. (Scroll down for full schedule)

In a nutshell: Halfpipe, Slopestyle and Big Air

Take a look at the three judged freestyle skiing events in more detail, and watch our special explainer videos on each...

Halfpipe – Skiers perform tricks as they travel down the halfpipe, and will be judged on amplitude, technical difficulty, creativity and landing.

There are two runs per competitor in qualification, with the top 12 reaching the final where the results are based on the best out of three runs.

Slopestyle – Following a similar format to Halfpipe, Slopestyle sees skiers tackle a course featuring a variety of hits, jumps, rails, tables and big-airs.

The competitors are once more judged on amplitude, technical difficulty, creativity and landing.

Big Air – Making its YOG debut, Big Air is all about one (big) jump. Competitors build up speed before the jump, and once in the air they look to perform tricks before producing a clean landing.

Each skier has two jumps in qualification and three jumps in the final. The best score counts in qualification, while in the final the two best scores are combined.

The thrill-a-second Ski Cross

Ski Cross has produced many a highlight since making its senior Olympics debut in 2010.

Some of you may recall the Sochi 2014 men’s quarter-final in the video below, where three skiers tumbled their way across the finish line in the hope they had qualified in second.

This photo finish typifies the exhilarating nature of the sport, which sees four skiers race against one another down a course featuring turns, roller sections, jumps and banked turns.

At Lausanne 2020, the men’s and women’s Ski Cross will see the top-16 skiers reach the round-robin group heats, where every competitor will eventually race each other before a points system (1st=4 pts, 2nd=3 pts, 3rd=2 pts, 4th=1 pt) determines which eight skiers have made the semi-finals.

The top two in both semi-finals reach the big final, and the winner of that race takes home the gold.

Don’t forget the Ski-Snowboard Cross Mixed Team

The name alone tells you this event is packed with even more drama.

Four athletes from each nation take part in the Team Ski-Snowboard Cross (XT), running in this order: female snowboarder, female skier, male snowboarder, male skier.

The 16 nations will first compete in the quarter-finals, with the top two from each heat advancing to the next stage.

Each race is continuous, with the starting gate only opening after the previous team-mate has crossed the finish line. If a competitor cannot complete their run, the gate will open for the team’s next skier once a penalty time is reached.

Watch the video below to see how Germany took XT gold at Lillehammer 2016.

Freestyle skiing schedule at Lausanne 2020

Saturday, January 18

09:30 - 15:00 - Women's Freeski Slopestyle

Sunday, January 19

09:30 - 15:00 - Men's Freeski Slopestyle

11:00 - 14:30 - Women's/Men's Ski Cross

Monday, January 20

09:30 - 15:00 - Women's/Men's Freeski Halfpipe

Tuesday, January 21

09:30 - 12:45 - Women's/Men's Qualification Freeski Big Air

11:00 - 12:45 - FreeSki-Snowboard Cross Mixed Team

Wednesday, January 22

10:00 - 13:00 - Women's/Men's Finals Freeski Big Air