In just over a year's time, the world will get to see just how exciting the future stars of freestyle skiing are at Gangwon 2024.
The fourth Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) taking place from 19 January - 1 February 2024 will celebrate the first time a YOG has been held in Asia.
The South Korean province hosted the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, and will become the first nation to hold the multi-sport competition outside of Europe.
Approximately 1,900 athletes will compete in every winter Olympic sport. The freestyle skiing events include halfpipe, slopestyle/big air, ski cross and dual moguls.
Continue reading to find out everything there is to know about the sport at Gangwon 2024.
Freestyle skiing at Gangwon 2024: Schedule and venue
The freestyle skiing events at Gangwon 2024 will take place at Hoengseong.
Big air will be staged in Welli Hilli Ski Resort, which is an existing venue but one that was not used at PyeongChang 2018.
Gangwon 2024 will take place from 19 January–1 February 2024, but the exact competition dates for freestyle skiing are still to be confirmed.
Freestyle skiing at Gangwon 2024: Events and format
There are 12 events that will be contested in freestyle skiing at Gangwon 2024:
- Women's halfpipe
- Men's halfpipe
- Women's slopestyle
- Men's slopestyle
- Women's big air
- Men's big air
- Women's ski cross
- Men's ski cross
- Women's dual moguls
- Men's dual moguls
- Ski cross mixed team
- Mixed team dual Moguls
Halfpipe involves skiers dropping in from the top of the pipe and generating as much speed as possible to ride up and down the walls as they make their way down the pipe. They need to perform as many tricks and hits as possible. Five judges are scoring the run based on amplitude, difficulty, execution, variety, execution and progression.
Slopestyle courses have a mix of rails and jumps. Skiers need to perform tricks on these as they make their way down the course. Courses traditionally have three rails and three jumps. Judges are scoring based on amplitude, difficulty, variety execution and progression. Precision, timing and speed are vital.
In big air each skier has three runs and in each one, they have a single chance to throw down and land their biggest or most difficult trick.
They try to generate as much speed as they can travelling down the 33.35m ramp before taking off from a large launch pad. Judges score based on difficulty, execution, amplitude, and landing. Clean landings can be difficult given the height at which the athlete reaches in their twists and spins but it goes a long way towards receiving a better score.
Freestyle ski cross sees four athletes racing on a downhill course that features various obstacles such as jumps, banked turns and rollers. There are no points for style. It's a race purely decided by who crosses the line first.
The freestyle ski cross mixed team event involves a two-competitor-per-team relay, one man, one woman. The second team member leaves the start gate once the first team member has crossed the finish line. The first team to have both competitors cross the finish line wins.
Moguls require skiers to navigate down a course filled with rounded bumps. They hit two jumps during their run where they need to execute a trick. Judges are looking at the athlete's ability to ski the moguls and perform tricks based on three components - turns, air and speed.
How to qualify for freestyle skiing at Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games
There are 172 quota spots on offer for freestyle skiing at Gangwon 2024, 86 for women and 86 for men.
Halfpipe has 32 places while slopestyle & big air have 44, ski cross 56 and dual moguls, 40 spots.
To be eligible to compete in slopestyle, big air, halfpipe and dual moguls, athletes must be born between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2009.
To be eligible to compete in ski cross, skiers must be born between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2007.
The qualification period began on 1 July 2022 and continues to 17 December 2023.
For more details about qualification and quota, click here.
Winter Youth Olympic Games freestyle skiing – previous stars
It was evident at Lausanne 2020 that Ailing (Eileen) Gu was a name we were going to hear more about. The Chinese skier took home big air and halfpipe gold, plus slopestyle silver at the Youth Olympic Games.
Two years later she backed that performance up by earning the same medals in the same disciplines at Beijing 2022.
Gu is an example of many who have shone at YOG and gone on to excel.
Kelly Sildaru of Estonia was the Lausanne 2020 slopestyle champion and added Olympic bronze to her list of achievements in 2022.
Four years earlier, Norway's Birk Ruud won slopestyle gold at Lillehammer 2016, and then claimed big air gold in Beijing. Meanwhile American Alex Hall upgraded his Youth Olympic silver in slopestyle to gold at the Olympic Winter Games in February.
Lillehammer is also where Swiss star Mathilde Gremaud honed her craft. She improved her YOG slopestyle sixth to PyeongChang 2018 silver and Beijing 2022 gold, plus won bronze in big air in China.
So as we look to the future, the question is, who will announce themselves as the future of freestyle skiing at Gangwon 2024?