Slopestyle at the Olympics - What do you think?
Will The Olympics Take Slopestyle Too?
MAY 28, 2010
Next week a bunch of ski racers will decide whether to include snowboard Slopestyle into the 2014 Olympic games. How will this affect slopestyle? Let’s look at what it did to halfpipe.
Without a rockstar like Shaun White to spur on the ratings, the Olympics could risk becoming as irrelevant to the average snowboarder as Aerial Skiing is to regular skiers.
The following is an excerpt from Transfer Snowboard Magazine Issue #4:“Opinion: Death By Olympics - Is halfpipe snowboarding the new Aerial Skiing?”
Words by :: Russell Holt
Famously in 1998 Terje Haakonsen, the best snowboarder in the world at the time, told the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and the Olympics, in more appropriate terms to - fuck off! It was a David and Goliath moment, an insightful, powerful and momentous action by a kid from Norway who was only one of few people who truly understood why snowboarding and the Olympics was not meant to be.
His actions signified the time when action sports were pulled into the Olympic world. Kicking and screaming, snowboarding became the first “Xtreme Sport” to be captured by the Olympic movement, then repackaged and sold. In the wake of its ram-and-raid on snowboarding, the IOC left a trail of destruction. Amongst the casualties: a collapsed ISF (International Snowboarding Federation), a divided snowboard community, an Olympic champion who wasn’t anywhere near the best in the world and a bunch of downhill skiers running the only Snowboard World Cup Tour. Terje later said “The IOC are supposed to do it for the love of all sports. If they love all sports, why do they have a ski federation to organize snowboarding events? That’s no love, that’s not even logic.”
But to understand more about the current state and then the future of halfpipe snowboarding in the Olympics we first have to talk about why snowboarding is there in the first place. Why did the IOC want snowboarding?
Well unfortunately like a lot of things, it comes down to money. The IOC launched the Winter Olympics in 1924 and not until the late 1960’s it operated purely as a non-commercial organization. It was during the lead up to the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France that commercialization started to creep on to the board-room agenda of its members. This change in ideals was such a horrific notion to the then president of the IOC, Avery Brundage, that he suggested the Winter Olympics be abolished there and then, as he felt it didn’t reflect the spirit of the Olympic movement.
A very interesting article indeed. From a TV watching perspective, seeing slopestyle at the Olympics would be great - its my favourite discipline to watch, however I think it is important that the snowboarders themselves have a say in how their sport is run. From the sounds of things, they have no say at all!
I get the feeling most snowboarders view the X-games as a bigger event then the Olympics. After watching the Olympics half-pipe at Cypress I tend to agree-there is so much atmosphere and excitement at the X-games whereas the Olympics felt rather “sterile” - perhaps it was the lack of crowds or something, but the “vibe” was just not there - I am stoked that Torah won a gold, but the rest of the event was kinda un-exciting…
If anyone is interested, a few years ago I read a book titled “The Lords of the Rings: Power, Money and Drugs in the Modern Olympics” - a bit of an eye opener about the corruption, bribery, etc within the Olympic movement. Really opens your eyes to the “fairness” of the games…..
While this is an interesting question, this article is terribly written. Grammatical mistakes and run-on sentences ftw!
Does the writer actually think that if halfpipe was not in the Olympics, riders would not be throwing double corks?
When were aerials ever relevant to skiing?
Should it be like moguls where, until recently, spread eagles and twisters could win you gold instead of that Johnny Moseley roll?
I think any idea that snowboarding should stay underground or “core” is long gone. It has broke out into the public eye years ago, and all though I appreciate what Terje does with TTR and his point against the Olympics… it is what it is. But truly it is odd that skiing governs snowboarding and I wish it werent so, but how does one even go about making that change?
The truth is that snowboarding saved skiing in many ways and that should also be appreciated… at least in the US I can say that is the case when you loo at “skier” visits and ticket sales and equipment sales etc. the early 90’s I believe was the height of that resurgence.
I would personally like to see slopestyle in the olympics.
I believe it will help display the diversity of what snowboarding is… and heck Id like to see some freestyle skiing too.
more sport involvement = more companies and more research and better products etc.
What I think is super cool news is that Terje and the TTR (Ticket To Ride) which he is such a big part of is not holding a world contest every 4 years… sounds Olympic doesnt it?...and it is governed by the WSF - World Snowboarding Federation. It will be held in Oslo, Norway.
Check out this article.
TTR APPROVES APPLICATION FOR WORLD SNOWBOARDING CHAMPIONSHIPS
the first event is planned for the 2011/2012 season
Overall more than I’d like to see slopestyle in the Olympics…. is that I would like to see this take a HUGE stage and show the Olympics that snowboarders CAN govern their own events///possibly changing the arrangement for the Olympics.