Moguls & Aerials Sub-Committee updates from annual Spring Meetings
May 25, 2021·Freestyle
A busy week of online meetings came to a close on Thursday with the congregation of the FIS Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski Committee at the 2021 FIS Spring Meetings. Originally scheduled to take place in Portoroz (SLO), this year’s gathering was moved to the virtual realm for some obvious reasons, and while we once again missed being able to see our snowsport family in person, each one of the subcommittees and advisory groups that met over the course of these past few days resulted in some productive sessions. While few major decisions were agreed upon as we head into an Olympic season, the wheels were put in motion for various potential refinements for most events ahead of the 2022/23 competition year.
Read on for some of the main highlights and decisions from this spring’s meeting…
Moguls & Aerials Sub Committee meeting
One of the prime directives of the Moguls & Aerials subcommittee continues to be the addition of dual moguls to the Olympic Winter Games programme, and the next presentation to the FIS Congress with push for this to occur in time for the 2026 Games. As well, the Subcommittee intends to add the team dual moguls event to the 2023 World Ski Championships programme.
With ski cross changing disciplines and moving to FIS Alpine, and with the halfpipe, big air, and slopestyle events falling under the designation of FIS Freeski, the Moguls & Aerials subcommittee believes now is the time to revert back to the historic name of the Freestyle Skiing subcommittee. Moguls and aerials are the original Freestyle Skiing events and should be allowed to be named as such.
Beginning in 2021/22, crystal globes will now be awarded to the top men and women of dual moguls. This means there will be globes awarded for both individual and dual moguls for both men and women next season.
A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to the growth moguls and aerials, including how to attract and enable a new generation of athletes and officials. And, further, how to make the events and competitions into captivating stories that are easily understood by the general public.
There’s a strong desire to use new technologies across media, judging and all aspects of the events, whether in the evelopment of video and remote judging, or facilitating improvements for how the events are presented through the media. In 2020/21 for the first time online aerials judging was conducted at some EC / WC level competitions with incredibly satisfying results, giving plenty of hopes to further develop the system as it has a big advantage of cost savings especially for lower level of competitions.
And, as always, the goal is to seek and attract event organisers who can deliver the highest standard of competition, week in and week out.
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