With the additions of ski halfpipe and slopestyle, ten freestyle skiing events will be contested at the Sochi 2014 Games, the largest program in the sporting discipline’s Olympic history.
International ski federation organizers and race directors are continuing final preparations at what will be a busy Rosa Khutor Extreme Park in February, with the Sochi Games now less than 80 days out.
"All final details are being put together; they’re building the scaffolding stands and our courses are basically done," FIS freestyle coordinator Joe Fitzgerald told Around the Rings about the Krasnaya Polyana venue.
Fitzgerald said there have been some challenges, in particular, with the moguls course due to its steepness.
"These mountains are quite dynamic and the erosion hasn’t quite come in so we actually have to build everything to a 9.5 earthquake level," Fitzgerald said. "I’ve actually seen stuff move there so they’re stabilizing different parts of our courses."
Fitzgerald advised that organizers are hoping to begin making artificial snow on the freestyle courses shortly.
"They’re making snow at 1,500 meters now and our courses are between 1,000-1,200, so as the temperatures drop, they’ll start hard with the snow guns on our courses," he said.
The design of the future Olympic ski and snowboard cross course at Rosa Khutor was recently unveiled. At 1,200 meters in length, and with a vertical drop of 210 meters, the course will test skiers and riders with a series of eight turn sections, numerous jumps providing big air, and 25 varied terrain features. Skiers and boarders will share the same start and finish as well as 70-80% of the actual course.
"Our other courses are fairly patterned, but cross and slopestyle really use the terrain and we really have to enhance it, so we’ve done lots of inspections," Fitzgerald advised. "It’s a combined effort between the builders, technical advisors, myself, and snowboard coordinator Uwe Beier. We also work with the Organizing Committee and ski area to make it happen."
Fitzgerald also addressed the importance of safety, advising that including room for potential crashes, the cross course will be 40-50 meters wide. Computer-aided design technology will also help athletes prepare and decrease potential danger.
"With CAD design we have a general sense of how fast people will go and where they will land off jumps," Fitzgerald said. "Providing these detailed drawings to athletes, they can go and run the coordinates and build up video type games to prepare."
The 2013-14 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup season kicks off in December with ski cross in Nakiska, Canada; moguls and aerials in Ruka, Finland; and halfpipe and the new Olympic event slopestyle at Copper Mountain, Colorado.
All events now count toward the Olympic qualification process. Fitzgerald advised there are 285 quota spots to be distributed to the National Ski Associations for freestyle skiing and 250 for snowboarding.
"All of our World Cups, actually since July 2012, are qualifying events, so all the events, especially now are very important," Fitzgerald said. "There is huge pressure at every race and every World Cup point has a tremendous meaning."
Another highlight of the season is an unprecedented World Cup aerials event at the "Bird’s Nest" in Beijing, China, December 20-21. Considering China’s highly successful freestyle aerials team, including Sochi favorite Xu Mengtao, the event is expected to be well received in the Chinese capital.
"This new event in Beijing is to be held in one of the world's great sporting landmarks, and within the "Bird's Nest" stadium, we anticipate an amazing and compelling competition for the people of Beijing," Fitzgerald said.
Beijing National Stadium, which hosted the 2008 Olympic opening and closing ceremony as well as athletics, currently has a capacity for 80,000 spectators. A four-year agreement has been signed with presenting sponsor Audi and the iconic Olympic venue.
In total, the 2013-14 World Cup freestyle season will be comprised of 78 events at 23 venues.
Vonn’s Olympic Status
In a story for Fox Sports MSN, former U.S. downhill star Picabo Street called Lindsey Vonn’s training crash earlier this week a "game-changer" and said it will be "very challenging for Lindsey to even qualify for the [Sochi] Olympics, let alone go."
Other experts have noted that ski racers have competed previously at major events and Olympics, even with torn ACLs.
Vonn crashed Tuesday morning during training at Copper Mountain in Colorado, re-injuring her surgically repaired right knee. The 2010 Olympic downhill champion reportedly suffered a mild strain to her right knee and partial tear of her reconstructed ACL along with facial lacerations and contusions, leaving her return to racing in doubt.
In February, Vonn tore both her right ACL & MCL after a spectacular crash at the world championships in Schladming, Austria and has been undergoing a rigorous rehabilitation program.
Vonn, 29, has shown resilience rebounding from crashes and injuries before. At the 2006 Torino Olympics, she crashed during a downhill training run, bruising her hip, but raced two days later finishing eighth. In 2010, she bruised her shin a week prior to the Olympics, but persevered through pain to win gold and bronze medals.
The veteran ski racer was hoping to return to competition next week in Beaver Creek, Colorado at the opening North American World Cup and site of the 2015 FIS Alpine Ski World Championships.
Shaun White Talks Sochi
Two-time Olympic halfpipe gold medalist and 14-time X Games champion Shaun White, when asked to compare the two multi-sport events, said the Olympics still mean more to him.
"To win either event is very prestigious, but I think the Olympics carries a lot more weight. There’s so much history there," White said on a USOC conference call Wednesday.
White, 27, who has been nursing a banged-up right ankle, is seeking to qualify for Sochi 2014 in both halfpipe and slopestyle. After taking his second gold medal in Vancouver, White said he was unsure about continuing his Olympic career until the new slopestyle event was added by the IOC.
"All of a sudden slopestyle is now in the Olympics and that’s such a huge challenge for me to do halfpipe and slopestyle," White said. "It’s a rarity in the sport to do both and now to try and do it at the Olympics. It’s exciting that the sport [slopestyle] is growing."
Written byBrian Pinelli
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