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The Winter Olympic Games is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held in Chamonix, France. The modern Olympic Games were inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, leading to the first modern Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 1896. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority.
The 1952 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VI Olympic Winter Games, took place in Oslo, Norway, from 14 to 25 February 1952.
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Vancouver 2010, informally the 21st Winter Olympics, was an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 12 to 28 February 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the surrounding suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University Endowment Lands, and in the nearby resort town of Whistler.
The 2018 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as PyeongChang 2018, was an international winter multi-sport event that was held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, Gangwon Province, South Korea, with the opening rounds for certain events held on 8 February 2018, the eve of the opening ceremony.
Ski cross is a type of skiing competition. Despite its being a timed racing event, it is often considered part of freestyle skiing because it incorporates terrain features traditionally found in freestyle. Ski cross courses have both naturally occurring terrain and artificial features including big-air jumps and high-banked turns. What sets ski cross apart from other alpine skiing disciplines is that there's more than one skier racing down the course. Any intentional contact with other competitors leads to disqualification.
Fischer Sports is an Austrian company that produces Nordic skiing, Alpine skiing and hockey equipment. It is one of the largest manufacturers of equipment in the world cup for both Nordic and Alpine skiing disciplines and manufactures a wide range of skis and ski equipment targeted against both professionals and amateurs. Fischer has achieved success in both Alpine and Nordic in the last three World Championships as well as at the Olympic Games.
Canada has competed at every Winter Olympic Games, and has won at least one medal each time. By total medals, the country's best performance was in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games where Canadian athletes won 29 medals. Canada set a new record for most gold medals won by a country in a single Winter Olympics with 14 at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. This achievement surpassed the previous record of 13 gold medals held by the Soviet Union (1976) and Norway (2002). Both Germany and Norway matched the record total of 14 gold metals in Pyeongchang in 2018.
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.
Liberty Skis Corporation is one of the ski industry's largest independent ski manufacturers, and a leader in the manufacture of carving, touring, powder, and twin-tip skis, used primarily for a style of skiing known alternately as newschool skiing or freeskiing. Founded in 2003 by James Satloff and Dan Chalfant, Liberty Skis has grown to be one of the largest independent ski manufacturers worldwide, with shops and distributors in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia.
Jon Olsson Delér is a professional freeskier and alpine ski racer from Sweden. Born in Mora, Olsson Delér started his career as a ski racer but at age 16 he switched his race skis for twin tips and quit ski racing. Eight years later, after a 50 000 SEK (US$5826.22) bet with fellow skier Jens Byggmark, Olsson Delér started ski racing again with the goal of the bets being to make it to the Olympics in 2014. He now competes in both freestyle and ski racing. Olsson Delér is known for his invention of several new double flips, including a D-spin 720 into a flatspin 540, a switch double rodeo 1080, a double flatspin 900, and a switch cork 720 to flatspin 540.
Shannon Bahrke is an American Olympic freestyle skier and entrepreneur. Bahrke was the silver medalist in moguls at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the bronze medalist at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and in 2003 was the World Cup Champion. With her bronze medal in 2010, she became the first US women's freestyle skier to win multiple Olympic medals. Bahrke was also the 2009 US National Champion in dual moguls. She has reached the podium twice at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships, winning bronze in 2003 and silver in 2007, both in dual moguls. In 2008, she founded Silver Bean Coffee, a Salt Lake City based coffee roasting company.
Grete Eliassen is an American-Norwegian freestyle skier. She won a bronze medal in Slopestyle at the 2011 Winter X Games XV in Aspen, Colorado, behind Kaya Turski and Keri Herman. She has won 6 medals at the Winter X Games in slopestyle and halfpipe events including back to back gold medals in 2005 and 2006. Eliassen serves as the 16th president of the Women's Sports Foundation, effective January 2017.
Rosalind Groenewoud is a Canadian freeskier. 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. She is the first woman to design her own pro-model freestyle ski with the female owned ski company Coalition Snow.
Tom Wallisch is a professional freeskier. He began skiing in 1990 and competing in the sport in 2009. After graduating from high school, Wallisch moved to Salt Lake City for post-secondary education at the University of Utah where he is pursuing a degree in the school of business.
Devin Marie Logan is an American freeskier from West Dover, Vermont. She won silver in Olympic slopestyle at the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi.
David Wise is an American freestyle skier, two-time Olympic gold medalist and four-time X Games Gold Medalist. In 2014, Wise won his third consecutive gold at X Games XVIII in Aspen, Colo. before heading to Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics where he became the first 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 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 gold with a score of 97.20 to win his second Olympic Gold.
Maggie Voisin is an American freeskier. She was selected for the U.S. Olympic team to compete in the women’s slopestyle event at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Unfortunately, she fractured her right fibula above her ankle, and was unable to compete. During the 2013–14 FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup season, Voisin finished in fourth in events in both Cardona, New Zealand and Copper Mountain in Colorado. At the 2014 Winter X Games, Voisin won the slopestyle silver medal, becoming the youngest skier to medal in X Games history.
Augustus Richard "Gus" Kenworthy is a British-born American freestyle skier from Telluride, Colorado, who competes in slopestyle, halfpipe and big air. Kenworthy won the silver medal in Men's slopestyle at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Kenworthy again represented the United States in slopestyle at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, where he qualified for the final and finished in 12th place.
Evan McEachran is a Canadian freeskier from Ontario, Canada. He is a member of the Canadian Slopestyle Ski Team. Evan represented Canada in slopestyle at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, where he qualified for the final, along with two fellow Canadian skiers, and finished sixth.
Nico Porteous is a New Zealand freestyle skier.
References
- ↑ LaPoint, Kara. "Captains of Industry". rgj.com. Reno Gazette Journal. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
