Aspen – Denver – Park City
Time to leave Aspen for a 5 hour drive to Denver and then a 60 minute flight to Salt Lake City, followed by another dhour drive up to Park City.
If everything goes as planned, of course, we’ll see.
The reason i’m going to Utah is to compete in the first ever FIS world championships in slopestyle, where I will be skiing for Sweden together with Oscar Scherlin, Maria Bagge and Emma Dahlström. It will be my first time competing in any kind of FIS event, so I’m not really sure of what to expect, except I will have to pee in a cup in front of a bunch of officials. Kind of weird, yes.
I have been torn on the FIS issue for a while, and I have been known to make statements such as “I will never participate in their events”, and so on, but considering the fact that the ball is already in motion for 2014, the hard truth is that I can’t really achieve anything if I’m just watching from the sidelines. Getting in early is the only way for us athletes to make sure that everything, from the organization to the judging will work out the way we want it to, and the goal is obviously to make sure that you won’t even tell a difference between the X Games and the Olympics. It’s a long way there and we will face a lot of clueless people, after all, our “sport” is incredibly hard to judge, but I think we can work out a smooth transition in the end. The most important part is that we can never emphasize any side of our sport as “more important”. Competition skiing is just as important as film skiing, backcountry just as important as urban, halfpipe just as important as big air. It’s our diversity that makes what we do so unique, and we are going to keep it that way.
See you soon in Park City, Utah.
Jake
random
hope there is a difference to x-games, cause judging at X was kinda weird, and seemed to be forced by television stories! who is skiing pipe for sweden? i don’t know anyone whos really into pipe!
really good thoughts jacob! I really like “Competition skiing is just as important as film skiing, backcountry just [..] unique, and we are going to keep it that way.”
..and for competition skiing, I really like the FIS system. there is no overall invitation, it is in the hand of every country whom to send.
have fun!
The scary part about FIS is what’s happened to moguls. Slopestyle is about expression. The danger with FIS is that someone will figure out the highest scoring run, and everyone will do the exact same thing over and over. Dub 10 to switch Dub 10 to full triple full full (or something).
isnt the 2014 olympics in mother russia? do people ski there?
You still got JOI, and hey, with those crashes you had at X should hold up for an invite for being so close to innovation. Also JOI is probably the place where they’ll build huge enough jumps. Ofc. people ski in Russia, but I guess it’s most famous for powder and big mountain.
Cheers Jacob!
You put “sport” in inverted commas when you use it to refer to “new freestyle skiing.” My sentiments exactly.
[...] a few weeks ago in the FIS World Champs in Park City. He blogged his mixed feelings about it (Jacobs Blog Post) saying: “I have been torn on the FIS issue for a while, and I have been known to make [...]