IOC Announces Ski Slopestyle is in 2014 Winter Olympics
The Association of Freeskiing Professionals Champions the Addition of the Progressive Ski Discipline
Press Release, Park City, UT – (July 6, 2011) – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced this week that ski slopestyle will be included in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games taking place in Sochi, Russia. The Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP), the international governing body that has long established the global ranking of Halfpipe and Slopestyle skiers, has been a strong proponent in lobbying to have the event included in the Olympics.
“We’re very excited about the addition of ski slopestyle to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games,” said AFP co-founder and media director Christopher Jerard. “We’re looking forward to the qualification process and the chance for freeskiing to have wider recognition on a global stage. The Olympic inclusions, something we’ve been working on for 10 years, certainly help bring significance to the AFP Ranking and overall AFP World Tour.”
The AFP Event calendar had 35 slopestyle events this past year, including the AFP World Championships held in Whistler in April 2011. The AFP will continue to provide measurable results and competition structure, as well as global rankings, leading up to the 2014 Olympic Games.
The addition of slopestyle, signals a move towards grabbing the attention of winter sports’ youth demographic. This news follows the announcement of the nine person US Ski Pipe team just a few weeks ago. U.S. Freeskiing, the newest branch of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, included Winter X Games champion Simon Dumont, an AFP Athlete Founder, and his Target teammate, 15-year-old Torin Yater-Wallace.
“I’m thrilled that the IOC is embracing freeskiing in such a big way,” says Dumont. “It’s been incredible to watch the sport evolve so rapidly that not only is halfpipe now an Olympic sport but slopestyle too. It really shows how far we’ve come in such a short time.”
"Slopestyle getting into the Olympics is a super cool opportunity for the sport,” said Yater-Wallace upon hearing the news. “I was already excited about halfpipe, but this brings our sport full circle into the mainstream media and the biggest sporting event in the world."
For more information on the AFP, check out their website here.
