Competitive freestyle skiing began in the 1960s - a rebellion against the straitjacket of traditional alpine racing that reflected the wider social changes of that turbulent decade. Now it's one of the sports most attuned with youth culture at the Winter Olympics. |
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It's easy to understand why freestyle skiing once seemed to be the sole domain of thrill-seekers and daredevils. After all, the point of aerials is to ski down a steep pitch, launch yourself more than 15 metres into the air, spin, flip and twist around, drop back to earth, land gracefully on your skis and glide away. In moguls, meanwhile, skiers hurtle down a steeply pitched run studded with teeth-rattling, knee-wrecking bumps, ski off a jump, do some mid-air tricks, land, continue down the course, jump again, land and ski some more. |
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Daffy: A moguls maneuver in which the skier kicks one leg forward and the other backward to achieve the splits position in mid-air.
Find out more about the language of Freestyle Skiing.
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