Freestyle skiing is one of the six skiing disciplines contested at the Winter Olympic Games, and one of the youngest.[1] In 1924, the first Winter Olympics featured Nordic skiing disciplines (cross-country skiing, ski jumping, and Nordic combined),[2] while alpine skiing was first contested in 1936.[3] Only at the 1992 Winter Olympics, in Albertville, France, were freestyle skiing events first held as official medal events.[4] Before that, freestyle skiing was contested at the 1988 Winter Olympics as a demonstration sport, consisting of events for both men and women in three variants: moguls, aerials and ski ballet.[5] In Albertville, moguls was the first-ever official freestyle skiing medal event; aerials and ski ballet were also held but still as demonstration events.[5] The growing popularity of aerials convinced the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to add this freestyle discipline to the 1994 Winter Olympics official program.[5] Moguls and aerials have thus been contested at every Winter Games since. Ski cross inclusion in the Winter Olympics program was approved at an IOC Executive Board meeting in November 2006, and the first events were held at the 2010 Winter Olympics.[6]
At the 2002 Winter Olympics, two days after Steve Bradbury gave Australia its first-ever Winter Olympic gold medal, Alisa Camplin won the freestyle aerials event, becoming the first Australian woman to win gold at the Winter Games; four years later, she collected a second consecutive medal, a bronze.[7] In 2010, the third Olympics hosted by Canada finally consecrated a Canadian athlete as Olympic champion: Alexandre Bilodeau took the gold medal in the men's moguls, overcoming defending champion Dale Begg-Smith of Australia.[8]
Kari Traa of Norway has won three medals (one gold, one silver, one bronze) in three successive Games, more than any other freestyle skier at the Winter Olympics.[9] Begg-Smith and Janne Lahtela of Finland are the most successful male freestyle skiers, with one gold and one silver medal each. No skier has won more than one gold medal or has managed to defend their Olympic title.[10] The youngest freestyle skier to win an Olympic medal is Russian Yelizaveta Kozhevnikova, who secured a silver in 1992 with 18 years old, while Tatjana Mittermayer of Germany is the oldest medalist, following her silver in the 1998 moguls event, aged 33.[11]
As of the 2010 Winter Olympics, the United States is the most successful nation in the history of Olympic freestyle skiing, having collected a total of 14 medals: five gold, five silver, and four bronze. They are followed by Canada with nine medals (four gold, three silver, two bronze). Together with France and Norway, the United States are also the only nation to have won a medal at every Winter Olympics featuring freestyle skiing as an official Olympic sport discipline. Overall, 72 medals (24 of each color) have been awarded to 58 skiers representing 17 National Olympic Committees (NOC).
Men
.jpg) Alexandre Bilodeau's victory in the 2010 men's moguls event made him the first-ever Canadian to win a gold medal at an Olympic Games held in Canada. In 2014, he became the first Olympic champion in moguls who defended his title. |
Women
Canadian skier
Jennifer Heil won the women's Olympic moguls event in
2006, and achieved a silver medal in
2010.
Statistics
Athlete medal leaders
 Norway's Kari Traa is the most successful Olympic freestyle skier, with three medals in the women's moguls event: one gold (2002), one silver (2006), and one bronze (1998). .jpg) Janne Lahtela of Finland ( pictured) and Dale Begg-Smith of Australia have won two medals each (one gold and one silver) in the men's moguls.  After a bronze medal in 2002 and a fourth place in 2006, Belarusian skier Aleksei Grishin secured the gold medal in the men's aerials event at the 2010 Games. |
Athletes who won at least two medals are listed below.[12]
| Athlete |
Nation |
Event |
Olympics |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Total |
| Traa, KariKari Traa |
 Norway (NOR) |
Women's Moguls |
1998–2006 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Bilodeau, AlexandreAlexandre Bilodeau |
 Canada (CAN) |
Men's Moguls |
2006–2014 |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Begg-Smith, DaleDale Begg-Smith |
 Australia (AUS) |
Men's Moguls |
2006–2014 |
1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Heil, JenniferJennifer Heil |
Canada (CAN) |
Women's Moguls |
2002–2010 |
1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Lahtela, JanneJanne Lahtela |
 Finland (FIN) |
Men's Moguls |
1998–2002 |
1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Kearney, HannahHannah Kearney |
 United States (USA) |
Men's Moguls |
2006–2014 |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Camplin, AlisaAlisa Camplin |
Australia (AUS) |
Women's Aerials |
2002–2006 |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Lassila, LydiaLydia Lassila |
Australia (AUS) |
Women's Aerials |
2002–2014 |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Grospiron, EdgarEdgar Grospiron |
 France (FRA) |
Men's Moguls |
1992–1994 |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Hattestad, Stine LiseStine Lise Hattestad |
Norway (NOR) |
Women's Moguls |
1992–1994 |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Satoya, TaeTae Satoya |
 Japan (JPN) |
Women's Moguls |
1994–2006 |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Grishin, AlekseiAleksei Grishin |
 Belarus (BLR) |
Men's Aerials |
2002–2010 |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Nina, LiLi Nina |
 China (CHN) |
Women's Aerials |
2006–2010 |
0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Bahrke, ShannonShannon Bahrke |
United States (USA) |
Women's Moguls |
2002–2010 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Dashinski, DmitriDmitri Dashinski |
Belarus (BLR) |
Men's Aerials |
1998–2006 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Kozhevnikova, YelizavetaYelizaveta Kozhevnikova |
 Unified Team (EUN)
 Russia (RUS) |
Women's Moguls |
1992–1994 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Medals per year
| × |
NOC did not exist |
# |
Number of medals won by the NOC |
– |
NOC did not win any medals |
Medal sweep events
These are events in which athletes from one NOC won all three medals.
See also
References
- General
- Specific
- ↑ "International Ski Federation". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved March 16, 2010.
- ↑ "Chamonix 1924". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved March 14, 2010.
- ↑ Kubatko, Justin. "1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved March 14, 2010.
- ↑ "Freestyle Skiing Equipment and History". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
- 1 2 3 "Freestyle Skiing History". CBC Sports. Retrieved January 6, 2009.
- ↑ "Ski-cross gets approval for 2010". BBC Sport. November 28, 2008. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
- ↑ Associated Press (February 18, 2002). "Camplin's aerials win gives Australia another gold". CNNSI.com (CNN). Retrieved March 17, 2010.
- ↑ Mick, Hayley (February 14, 2010). "Bilodeau wins Canada's first gold on home soil". CTVOlympics.ca (CTV). Retrieved March 17, 2010.
- ↑ Macur, Juliet (February 12, 2006). "Olympics: Tears and laughter as Canadian favorite takes the honors in moguls". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved January 6, 2009.
- ↑ "Factsheet: Records and medals at the Olympic Winter Games" (PDF). Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. August 1, 2008. Retrieved January 13, 2009.
- ↑ Associated Press (February 12, 1998). "Kraushaar wins Luge by a silver". The Washington Post.
- ↑ Kubatko, Justin. "Freestyle Skiing". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved March 16, 2010.
External links
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| | Men's moguls | |
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| | Men's aerials | |
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| | Men's ski cross | |
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| | Men's slopestyle | |
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| | Men's halfpipe | |
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| | Women's moguls | |
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| | Women's aerials | |
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| | Women's ski cross | |
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| | Women's slopestyle | |
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| | Women's halfpipe | |
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Switzerland
Austria
Sweden
Czech Republic (CZE)
Germany (GER)
Uzbekistan (UZB)
