Slopestyle made its Olympic debut at Sochi 2014, and before a single medal was decided the course at Rosa Khutor was already the most talked-about venue of the Games. Russian rider Alexey Sobolev strapped a camera on and filmed a full run, giving everyone at home a rider's view of the rails and jumps that the best snowboarders in the world were arguing about.
What is slopestyle?
Slopestyle is a freestyle run down a course of obstacles. Riders link a rail and box section with a series of big kickers, the jumps, choosing their own tricks along the way. Judges score each run as a whole on difficulty, execution, amplitude, variety and how cleanly the tricks flow from one feature to the next. A rider needs speed for the jumps, control on the rails and a plan for the whole line.
The Sochi course was built at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park in Krasnaya Polyana, the mountain cluster above Sochi. The park opened in 2012 and hosted all the freestyle skiing and snowboarding events of the 2014 Winter Olympics, with seating for 6,250 snowboard spectators.
Course controversy and injuries in training
When training opened in early February 2014, many riders called the jumps too steep and the landings too punishing. Norway's Torstein Horgmo, one of the favourites, broke his collarbone in a practice crash and missed the event. Slovenia's Cilka Sadar was injured days before the women's competition and did not start.
The biggest name went too. Shaun White, already a double Olympic halfpipe champion, hurt his wrist in practice and withdrew from slopestyle, saying that "the potential risk of injury is a bit too much for me to gamble my other Olympics goals on." He went on to finish fourth in the halfpipe. After the training crashes and complaints, organisers modified the course before the competition.
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A rider's view of the run
Sobolev's helmet-camera video starts at the top with the rail section, a set of handrails and boxes where riders slide and spin on and off the metal. Below that come the jumps. Seen from the board, each takeoff rises like a wall of snow, and the landing disappears from view until the rider is in the air. It is a good reminder of how much commitment every Olympic slopestyle trick demands, and how little room there is for a misjudged speed check.
Sochi 2014 slopestyle results
The men's final on 8 February 2014 delivered the first gold medal of the Games. Twenty-nine riders from 13 nations started, and the podium was:
- Gold: Sage Kotsenburg, United States, 93.50
- Silver: Ståle Sandbech, Norway, 91.75
- Bronze: Mark McMorris, Canada, 88.75
The women's final followed on 9 February:
- Gold: Jamie Anderson, United States, 95.25
- Silver: Enni Rukajärvi, Finland, 92.50
- Bronze: Jenny Jones, Great Britain, 87.25, the country's first Olympic medal on snow
Slopestyle has stayed on the Olympic programme ever since. If you want to try it yourself, start in a resort terrain park on the smallest features, wear a helmet and back protector, and look at every jump before you hit it.
Related reading
- 22 Winter Olympic Photographs That Freeze Motion
- P&G’s Sochi-Era Advertisement: The Support Behind the Athlete
- Ski Ballet: Choreography on Snow at the Olympics
- Michelle Salt’s Early Competitive Para-Snowboarding Story
- Jurij Tepeš at Vikersund: A Ski-Jump Point of View
- Ski helmets and brain injuries
Sources
- Wikipedia: Men's slopestyle at the 2014 Winter Olympics
- Wikipedia: Women's slopestyle at the 2014 Winter Olympics
- Wikipedia: Rosa Khutor Extreme Park
- BuzzFeed: Shaun White pulls out of Sochi slopestyle
- BuzzFeed: Ride the Sochi slopestyle course
- Video: Alexey Sobolev, vimeo.com/85831388
- Photographs: Chuck Myers / MCT, The Associated Press, NBC Olympics, Channel 4
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