Freeride Named an Official FIS Discipline and Takes a Step Towards the Olympics

Mountainwatch | News

Freeride Skiing and Snowboarding took a step towards becoming an Olympic sport yesterday after the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) recognised Freeride Skiing and Snowboarding as an official discipline.

The decision was made during the FIS General Assembly held in Reykjavik, Iceland, where FIS and National Ski Associations members voted on June 5, 2024 and the inclusion of Freeride Skiing and Snowboarding as a full-fledged FIS discipline was voted unanimously by all members of the Congress.

The decision comes as no surprise and follows the acquisition of the Freeride World Tour (FWT) by FIS in December 2022. At the time that news was not universally welcome, many FWT fans concerned that FIS’s ownership will take the ‘free’ out of freeride. No doubt the idea of freeride as potential Olympic sport will see a similar response from the core purists, just as it did when snowboarding became part of the Olympics.

In a press release today the Freeride World Tour (FWT) stated that the recognition of Freeride Competitions as an official FIS discipline is “the second step towards the development of the sport on a global scale, extending support to athletes and enhancing the potential for future inclusion in the Winter Olympic Games.”

“This is an important day for the freeride community,” said Nicolas Hale-Woods, Founder and CEO of FWT. “The recognition of Freeride Skiing and Snowboarding as an official discipline within FIS will elevate the sport and provide new opportunities for athletes worldwide.”

The independently run Freeride World Tour has been the peak of freeride competition since 2004, an elite multi-event tour held from Jan-March each year, the ultimate winner being crowned Freeride World Champion. To make the FWT, athletes need to compete in events on the Qualifying tours in the Americas and Europe/Oceania throughout the northern hemisphere winter. There are also qualifying events in Japan and in South America and New Zealand during the southern hemisphere season.

The FWT also runs a junior tour and the annual Freeride Junior World Championships but the FWT has not held an open World Championships. That is set to change, and the Freeride World Championship will now be included “within the FIS framework”.

“This is just the beginning,” Hale-Woods said in the FWT press release. “Our goal is to nurture the sport at all levels, from grassroots to elite competitions, and to see Freeride Skiing and Snowboarding represented in future Winter Olympic Games.”

Following the FIS decision Freeride Skiing and Snowboarding will undergo a voting process within individual National Ski Associations worldwide, including Snow Australia, which now plans have Freeride under the Snow Australia banner as a recognised pathway. It will have more information on that over the next few months and it already has a strong talent pool of freeride athletes to work with.

Australian athletes have had success in Freeride events in the past, Nat Segal with top three finishes in women’s ski while in women’s snowboard Michaela Davis-Meehan finished second on the Freeride World Tour in 2020 and won the FWT event in Kicking Horse in 2023. Michaela competed in on the 2024 America’s qualifying tour, making the cut for the Challenger tour where she finished third, missing FWT qualification by two places.

Other Australian athletes competing in freeride tour qualifying events include Hotham snowboarder Briony Johnson and skier Zanna Farrell, both of whom finished in the top 10 on the Oceania Challenger Tour, while Thredbo skier Arkie Elliss has had top 10 finishes in North American qualifying events.

Looking towards the future, Australian athletes have enjoyed some big results in the junior divisions with 16-year-old Hotham skier Finn Jacobsen finishing equal first in the men’s ski under 18s on the 2024 Europe/Oceania tour while Jasper Rogers was fourth overall on the America’s men’s ski under 15s. In snowboarding, Australia’s Vaughn Hardwick is regarded as one of the world’s best up and comers after a successful junior career that included winning the Oceania tour in 2023 after finishing in third place in 2022. He also placed second in the 2023 Junior World Champs.

Australian skier Coen Bennie-Faull has competed off and on in qualifying events over the past decade and is also a freeride coach and was director of Hotham Freeski for a number of years. Coen now runs his own program called Higher Freeride, working with aspiring junior athletes including Finn Jacobson, and reckons the FIS decision “brings the sport full circle from its inception in 1991 at the World Extremes in Alaska.”

“At the time the sport of freeride represented an anti-establishment movement away from the structures of traditional competitive disciplines of skiing and snowboarding,” Coen told Mountainwatch. “This week’s vote somewhat represents a stamp of approval for freeride for the lifecycle it has been through. Similar to the journey that slopestyle has just been through over the past decade, freeride will inevitably go through a transformation that will likely dilute parts of the core culture.”

However, Coen does see it as a positive move for the sport and one that will open career opportunities and new pathways and it will grow from the roots up.

“I’m sure the growth will come with its own teething problems,” Coen said. “But I hope, similar to the success of snowboarding as an Olympic sport, freeride will eventually find its own groove with one foot in the mainstream whilst still maintaining its culture at the core.”