Byron Wells (born 3 April 1992) is a New Zealand freestyle skier. He competed at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships 2011 in Utah, in halfpipe and slopestyle. He qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, in men's halfpipe, but did not start. [1] His brother is also an international freestyle skier, Beau-James Wells.
Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails and boxes on their skis. Known as "hot-dogging" in the early 1970s, it is also commonly referred to as freeskiing, jibbing, as well as many other names, around the world.
Sarah Jean Burke was a Canadian freestyle skier who was a pioneer of the superpipe event. She was a five-time Winter X Games gold medallist, and won the world championship in the halfpipe in 2005. She successfully lobbied the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to have the event added to the Olympic program for the 2014 Winter Olympics. She was considered a medal favourite in the event. Burke died following a training accident in Utah in 2012.
Rosalind Groenewoud is a Canadian freeskier, known as Roz G in the action sports world. She is the 2011 FIS World Champion in halfpipe, Groenewoud is also a 2012 Winter X Games champion x 2 and has 3 silver and two bronze medals from X Games competitions in halfpipe. She won the AFP Overall Championship in 2009 & 2010 and AFP Halfpipe Overall Ranking in 2012. Groenewoud is a two-time Olympian, 2014 and 2018. She is the first woman to design her own pro-model freestyle ski with the female owned ski company Coalition Snow.
Devin Marie Logan is an American freeskier from West Dover, Vermont. She won silver in women's slopestyle event at the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi.
Maddison Michelle "Maddie" Bowman is an American former freestyle skier. She won a silver medal in the superpipe at Winter X Games XVI in 2012.
David Wise is an American freestyle skier. He is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a five-time X Games Gold Medalist. In 2014, Wise won his third consecutive gold medal at Winter X Games XVIII in Aspen, Colorado, before heading to Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. There, he became the first Olympic gold medalist in the Men's Freeski Halfpipe, which debuted in the Winter Games that year. In 2018, after struggling both personally and professionally since his win in Sochi, Wise won his fourth gold medal at the X Games just before he left for PyeongChang to defend his Olympic title. After a sub-par qualifying competition that placed him in the fifth drop-in position for the finals, Wise failed to complete each of his first two runs due, in both cases, to a binding malfunction. On his third and final run, Wise completed a career-best run to take the gold medal, the second Olympic gold medal of his career, with a score of 97.20.
Josiah "Jossi" Wells is a freestyle skier who represented New Zealand at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Half-pipe skiing is the sport of riding snow skis on a half-pipe. Competitors perform a series of tricks while going down the pipe. The current world record for highest jump in a half-pipe is held by Joffrey Pollet-Villard, with 26 feet 3 inches. The sport is considered to be dangerous compared to other sports, and helmets are required to be worn during competitions. Half-pipe skiing has been part of the Winter X Games since 2002, and made its Olympic debut at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. David Wise of the United States of America became the first Olympic champion in this discipline with a total of 92.00 points.
Freestyle skiing at the 2014 Winter Olympics was held at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park near Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. The ten events took place between 6–21 February 2014.
The British Virgin Islands sent a delegation to compete at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia from 7–23 February 2014. This was the second Winter Olympic Games appearance for the territory, after the 1984 Winter Olympics. The team consisted of one athlete, the freestyle skier Peter Crook, who became the territory's second Winter Olympian ever. In the men's halfpipe, he came in 27th place.
Augustus Richard Kenworthy is a British-American former freestyle skier, actor, and YouTuber. He has competed in slopestyle, halfpipe, and big air. Kenworthy won the silver medal in men's slopestyle at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. As of 2019 Kenworthy represents Great Britain. He was cast as Chet Clancy in the ninth season of the horror anthology series American Horror Story: 1984.
Rowan Cheshire is a British freestyle skier, specialising in the halfpipe. Cheshire competed in the 2013 FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup in Voss, Norway, where she finished 17th. She won a bronze medal at the 2013 World Junior Championships in Valmalenco. In January 2014 she became the first British female skier to win a halfpipe competition on the FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup when she took the halfpipe event at a meeting in Calgary. This was the first Freestyle World Cup win for a British female skier since Jilly Curry won an aerials competition in 1992.
James Machon is a freestyle skier who competes in the halfpipe, his first Olympics was the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Emma Lonsdale is a freestyle skier who competes in the halfpipe. Her Olympics debut was at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, competing for Team GB.
Mirjam Jaeger is a Swiss former freestyle skier. Now she concentrates on her modeling and sports broadcaster career.
Lyndon Sheehan is a New Zealand freestyle skier. He competed at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships 2013 in Voss, and at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, in men's halfpipe.
Janina Kuzma is a New Zealand freestyle skier. She competed at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships 2013 in Voss. She competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, placing 5th in the women's halfpipe. She is set to compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, in same event. She is seven-time New Zealand Big Mountain Champion, two-time Canadian Freeski Champion, two-time World Heli Challenge Champion and second overall in the world for half pipe 2015.
Murray Buchan, nicknamed Muzza, is a freestyle skier who competes in the halfpipe. Buchan's Olympic debut was at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, where he competed on 18 February 2014 in the halfpipe, finishing in 17th place in the qualification round.
Miguel Porteous is a New Zealand freestyle skier who competes internationally.
Ireland competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.