Start of the season in Chur: this is how the world of wild freestyle stars works

The World Cup season opens with Big Air in Chur. It goes into the air. The riders jump up to seven meters high and 25 meters long with skis or snowboards over a gigantic jump (a so-called kicker) and perform a single trick.

However, in the halfpipe, a tube made of ice and snow about five meters high and open at the top, the athletes make a maximum of eight jumps per run. Here too the goal is high. Some riders jump five meters over the edge of the halfpipe.

In the third category, slopestyle, freestylers complete a course with multiple obstacles such as jumps or rails. In this park you can do as many tricks as you want.

150 athletes will participate on Friday and Saturday. The Swiss top team is represented by 25 athletes, five of whom have already stood on the podium in Chur. A Swiss podium finish can also be expected this year.

In the freeski team, the greatest expectations lie with Mathilde Gremaud, winner of Olympic bronze in 2022. Nicolas Huber, third at the World Championships in Big Air, could cause cheers among the snowboarders. Among the top international stars, you can look forward to the appearance of the Norwegian defending champion Birk Ruud or the two-time big air world champion Tess Ledeux.

Higher, crazier are all good approaches in freestyle to land on the podium in competitions. In all disciplines, riders are rated from 0 to 100 by judges, also known as freestyle judges. The most important criteria are the level of difficulty and the clean execution of the jump.

Many rotations are generally considered more difficult. Grips on the board or backward landings also play a role. And then there is the so-called style. This is about the general impression that the rider leaves with the jury. Ideally, a jump or run looks casual and powerful at the same time. But the definition of style is anything but an exact science.

When a freestyler talks about a Switch Double Cork 1440, the average sports enthusiast does not understand it much. The names in freestyle are almost as complicated as the jumps themselves, but the names can be deciphered using the following basic terms:

Switch: The riders approach the kicker backwards.

Spin: Means a rotation around its own axis. However, specifying the number of spins requires some mental arithmetic. A full turn is called a three-sixty (360 degrees), a double turn a seven-twenty (720 degrees), and so on.

Flip: Means a somersault in the air. A distinction is made between front flip and back flip. A frontflip is a forward somersault, a backflip is a backwards somersault.

Cork: Here the athletes rotate on two axes in the air. Actually a flip and a spin at the same time. But don’t worry if the jumps remain a mystery despite this basic knowledge. The official FIS list contains over 100 tricks. Detecting whether a rider is doing three or four spins is virtually impossible for a layman.