Freeski Update: FIS Freestyle Season 22/23 Kicks Off This Week With Big Air in Switzerland

While eyes of the alpine community are turned to Sölden, Austria, this weekend, just a couple of mountain ranges to the west, in Chur, Switzerland, the Freestylers are kicking off their season with a Big Air event on Friday. The Freestyle category under FIS, the International Ski Federation, consists of six very unique disciplines:

• Ski/Boarder-Cross
• Moguls (Duals and Singles)
• Big Air (Ski & Snowboard)
• Slopestyle (Ski & Snowboard) 
• Half-pipe (Ski & Snowboard)
• Aerials

There is not a lot of crossover in the disciplines unlike in the alpine ski-racing divisions. The biggest crossover is in the Big Air, Half-Pipe, and Slopestyle disciplines, where many riders will compete across the three different sports. Those three disciplines are referred to as ‘Freeski’ disciplines (not to be confused with ‘Freeride’).

Freestyle, and in particular Freeski, is quite unique in the sense that it bridges the skier/boarder gap by often holding concurrent events for both skiers and boarders. The Chur Big Air Festival will be host to both ski and snowboard events, with the Ski World Cup held on Friday, October 21, and the Snowboard World Cup held on Saturday, October 22. 

The Freestyle calendar for 22/23 has been finalized. We have summarized the Freeski and snowboard World Cup events for SnowBrains: 

Big Air:

October 21-22, 2022
Chur, Switzerland
Men & Women, Ski & Snowboard

November 25-26, 2022
Falun, Sweden
Men & Women, Ski & Snowboard

December 3, 2022
Beijing, China
Men & Women, Ski & Snowboard

December 10, 2022
Edmonton, Canada
Men & Women, Snowboard

December 16-17, 2022
Copper Mountain, USA
Men & Women, Ski & Snowboard

January 14, 2023
Kreischberg, Austria
Men & Women, Snowboard

Slopestyle:

November 19, 2022
Stubai, Austria
Men & Women, Ski

January 14, 2023
Font Romeu, France
Men & Women, Ski

January 21-22, 2023
Laax, Switzerland
Men & Women, Ski & Snowboard

February 3-4, 2023
Mammoth Mountain
Men & Women, Ski & Snowboard

February 12, 2023
Calgary, Canada
Men & Women, Snowboard

March 18, 2023
Tignes, France
Men & Women, Ski

March 25-26, 2023
Silvaplana, Switzerland
Men & Women, Ski & Snowboard

Half-Pipe:

December 16-17, 2022
Copper Mountain, USA
Men & Women, Ski & Snowboard

January 21, 2023
Calgary, Canada
Men & Women, Ski

January 21, 2023
Laax, Switzerland
Men & Women, Snowboard

February 3-4, 2023
Mammoth Mountain, USA
Men & Women, Ski & Snowboard

February 11, 2023
Calgary, Canada
Men & Women, Snowboard

March 11-12, 2023
Secret Garden, China
Men & Women, Ski & Snowboard

The Freestyle World Championships at which all six disciplines are featured for skiing and snowboarding will be held in Bakuriani, Georgia this season from February 19-March 5, 2023. World Championships are only held in odd years. 

Due to the large number of Ski-Cross and Boarder-Cross Events, we will provide World Cup Event calendars for the remaining Freestyle disciplines, Cross, Moguls, and Aerials, separately in an upcoming post.

The Freestyle season opener in Chur is solely for Big Air and is set up more like a festival, with live acts and entertainment. The event usually attracts big crowds. This year’s festival line-up includes legendary rapper Busta Rhymes and Swiss rapper Stress. On both days the competition starts with Qualifiers in the afternoon from which the top 8 in each group will qualify for the finals at 8 p.m. CET. This bodes well for viewers in North America.

Who to watch? While the starting list has not been released yet, we expect to see most of the big names from the Freeski community in Switzerland this weekend. 

Some of the top athletes expected to start at the Skiing Big Air World Cup in Chur are:

• Eileen Gu (China) – Olympic Gold
• Tess Ledeux (France) – Olympic Silver
• Mathilde Gremaud (Switzerland) – Olympic Bronze
• Birk Ruud (Norway) – Olympic Gold
• Colby Stevenson (USA) – Olympic Silver
• Henrik Harlaut (Sweden) – Olympic Bronze
• Matêj Švancer (Cechia) 
• Andri Ragettli (Switzerland)
• Alex Hall (USA)
• Oliwer Magnusson (Sweden)

Some of the top athletes expected to start at the Snowboarding Big Air World Cup in Chur:

• Anna Gasser (Austria) – Olympic Gold
• Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (New Zealand) – Olympic Silver
• Kokomo Murase (Japan) – Olympic Bronze
• Miyabi Onitsuka (Japan)
• Reira Iwabuchi (Japan)
• Jamie Anderson (USA) 
• Julia Marino (USA)
• Anastasia Tatalina (Russia)
• Hailey Langland (USA)
• Su Yiming (China) – Olympic Gold
• Mons Røisland (Norway) – Olympic Silver
• Max Parrot (Canada) – Olympic Bronze
• Max McMorris (Canada)

Tune in for some show-stopping action this weekend!

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