Winter Olympics 2022: Freestyle Skiing by Polly Watkins

Polly is a 15-year-old from Wales who loves to ski. She trained with a Canadian freestyle club in 2020 and won the Under 12’s Welsh Girls Freestyle Championship in 2019. She has just passed her Level 1 Canadian ski instructor course at only 14 and is going on to do her Level 2.

One day she hopes to work as a medic with the ski patrol.

Winter Olympics 2022 – Women’s Freestyle Skiing

What even is that?

It is so great to watch. Aerial flips, spins and tricks off huge kickers plus sliding rails and boxes on their skis. What’s not to like?

What are the different types of freestyle skiing sports?

Aerials (athletes perform acrobatic twists and flips in the air)

Mixed team aerials (teams of three skiers perform aerial tricks)

Moguls (skiers navigate a sloped course covered with mounds of snow called moguls, and are judged on turns, speed, and air)

Halfpipe (where they perform jumps and turns in a U-shaped course with 22-foot walls)

Slopestyle (athletes execute tricks on a course with obstacles)

Big air (skiers perform tricks off a 60-foot ramp)

Ski cross (four skiers race down a course amid jumps, banks, and rollers)

Canada and the USA have dominated in the recent Olympics in terms of medals, but I always love watching our own hugely talented GB athletes. In the last Olympics we followed Emily Sarsfield who competed in the finals of the Ski Cross.

This year I am reporting on two disciplines, Slopestyle and Big Air.

Athletes who qualify for the Olympic Freestyle need to compete in both events.

4 years ago, I was lucky enough to attend a freestyle camp, in Canada, along with GB athlete Kirsty Muir. She had won a scholarship to be there, already showing her amazing talent. Kirsty is only 17, the youngest member of the whole GB squad. She was so lovely, and it is just amazing to see her now competing in the Olympics.

Big Air. 7th February.

The smokestacks and cooling towers of an abandoned steel mill don't exactly shout skiing, no jagged mountain peaks in sight. But 200 feet above the ground in a cloudless, freezing Beijing sky at the top of a crazy steep bright white roller coaster of a slope, there they are. The great and the good of women's freestyle skiing.

The qualifier stage involves having three runs. The best two scores of the three runs were used to decide who qualified for the final. The finalists then have another three jumps, the best two scores adding to their final score.

Kirsty qualified in 7th place, totally nailing her first jump with a score of 89.25, the second highest of the qualifying session. 12 athletes qualified for the final the following day.

The final was at 2am UK time but I am in Canada at the moment so no late night for me, it was 6pm for us. Perfect timing!

IT’S FINALS TIME!

Kirsty was first down the course and pulled off an outstanding first jump, a double 900 with a long tail grab, (that’s 2 1/2 spins and 2 1/2 off axis rotations) scoring the first score over 90 in the women’s big air this year with 90.25. It was a dream start.

Next up, was Eileen Gu with an incredible 93.75 for four rotations and a perfect landing.

Then an unbelievable jump from Tess Ledeux scoring 94.50, putting her in the gold medal position.

Next up, Canadian Medan Oldham, first in the qualifying rounds, went into her jump switch (backwards) and scored 85.

What a first round.

Kirsty was third going into the second jump.

The standard is just off the chart, these athletes pushing themselves, each other and their discipline to incredible heights.

Kirsty’s second jump was flawless with a trailing tail grab which she made look so easy. This is an incredibly difficult discipline and when these athletes make it look easy you know they've had a good run!

She scored 78.75. A safe jump, she’s holding her own in high-class company.

Eileen Gu nailed her second run with an impressive double 1080 grab.

A straight switch 1440 from Tess Ledeux for her second jump gave Tess a score of 93 in her second run, keeping her in the lead. Followed by Megan Oldham who made it into fourth place.

At the end of the second round it was Ledeux (France), Gremaude (Switzerland) and Gu (China) in Gold, Silver and Bronze positions.

Kirsty went for it on her third run needing a big jump to get her from fifth place and onto the podium. A massive effort and so close but she crashed on landing unable to better her score, she was so thrilled to finish and be congratulated by her hero Sarah Hofflien. How completely amazing to watch.

On her last run Eileen Gu jumped four and a half rotations and delivered it perfectly giving her a score 94.50 launching her into the gold medal position. The crowd went crazy for her.

Two more jumps to go. The current second and third place athletes. Mathilde from Switzerland had a big crash. So, just Tess Ledeux to go. She has never won an Olympic medal but has won everything else… Could she knock the golden girl from the top spot? It was an amazing jump but not good enough, a distraught Ledeux had to settle for silver.

Gold for Eileen Gu of China

Silver for Tess Ledeux of France

Bronze for Matilde Gremaude of Switzerland

So, a brilliant fifth place for Kirsty Muir in the first event, her first Olympics, you cannot underestimate the size of what she has achieved.

This has been a competition so much bigger and better than I ever imagined. These women have inspired me so much. Knowing that Kirsty has come from Scotland, learning on dry slopes and is now in the Olympics. That should inspire any young people watching this in the UK too.

Thank you Polly - what a great article!

Images are screenshots taken by Polly from the BBC and Montreal Post