Freestyle Skiing at the Winter Olympic Games Beijing 2022

Totallympics · August 15, 2021

Freestyle Skiing at the Winter Olympic Games Beijing 2022

Beijing (CHN) - 3 February 2022 - 19 February 2022

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Maxim Fastovsky · December 27, 2021

What exactly is the difference between Big Air and Aerials? Looks the same

intoronto · December 27, 2021

20 minutes ago, Maxim Fastovsky said:

What exactly is the difference between Big Air and Aerials? Looks the same

Big air = skiers use poles to ski, Aerials = no poles.

NearPup · December 27, 2021

24 minutes ago, intoronto said:

Big air = skiers use poles to ski, Aerials = no poles.

No requirement to use poles in big air :P

Olympian1010 · December 27, 2021

45 minutes ago, Maxim Fastovsky said:

What exactly is the difference between Big Air and Aerials? Looks the same

Aerials is more closely related to gymnastics, Big Air is more closely related to organic freeski.

I don’t think anyone doing either would be able to easily transition to the other. The styles are completely different.

That said, aerials should really be dropped for 2026. There’s not enough athletes/countries competing to justify its spot on the Olympic program, and it would free up quotas that will be badly needed elsewhere during the next round of cuts. I love aerials, but it the discipline’s days on the Olympic program should realistically be numbered.

NearPup · December 27, 2021

58 minutes ago, Maxim Fastovsky said:

What exactly is the difference between Big Air and Aerials? Looks the same

Couple ones.

In aerials, the skier is launched straight into the air and travels a very short distance horizontally. In big air the skier is launched forward moreso than upwards.
Aerials is a lot like diving - every jump has a degree of difficulty based on the number of flips and spins. Every jump is judged based on form in the air and landing, and that is multiplied by the degree of difficulty to get a final score.
Big air is scored more subjectively, with a 0-100 scale. There are no set degree of difficulty.
Aerials tricks must be pencilled (i.e. the body of the aerialist should remain as straight as possible) to achieve high form scores. In big air pencilling leads to massive deductions.
In big air grabbing the skis during tricks is one of the most important way to increase your score. Grabs are not permitted in aerials.
In big air you tan takeoff forwards or backwards (switch). In aerials you can only takeoff forwards.
In big air the judges take into consideration whether you did a trick in your natural or unnatural spin direction. This isn’t taken into account in aerials.

Even though on the surface big air and aerials look very similar there is zero overlap between the competitors. The techniques used in both are quite different.

dcro · December 28, 2021

2 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

Aerials is more closely related to gymnastics, Big Air is more closely related to organic freeski.

I don’t think anyone doing either would be able to easily transition to the other. The styles are completely different.

That said, aerials should really be dropped for 2026. There’s not enough athletes/countries competing to justify its spot on the Olympic program, and it would free up quotas that will be badly needed elsewhere during the next round of cuts. I love aerials, but it the discipline’s days on the Olympic program should realistically be numbered.

Basically the most limited discipline on the program (Summer or Winter).

Around 10 countries have their squads... And that's it.

Quasit · December 28, 2021

17 minutes ago, dcro said:

Basically the most limited discipline on the program (Summer or Winter).

Around 10 countries have their squads... And that's it.

Yet more exciting in terms of winning nations than bobsleigh, if you exclude women's monobob.

Fly_like_a_don · December 28, 2021

4 hours ago, Quasit said:

Yet more exciting in terms of winning nations than bobsleigh, if you exclude women's monobob.

Agreed. I'd rather watch the entire aerials event rather than bobsleigh( usually 20mins at the end only). Nations are few but scoring looks more transparent as compared to big air in which I just couldn't differentiate how a 80 pointer was better than 90 pointer while looking almost exactly alike.

With the nature of aerials 6-7 nations have medal (winning) potential in women and 3-5 in men which is fine.