Sochi 2014 and FIS yet to resolve slopestyle course build and design issue – 2014 Winter Olympics
The International Ski Federation and Sochi 2014 Organising Committee successfully reached a decision regarding the location for the ski and snowboard slopestyle course and halfpipe for the 2014 Winter Olympics during their meeting at Rosa Khutor in Russia
a few days back. However, the issue pertaining to the designing and building of the features remained unresolved.
The CEO of Sochi 2014, Dmitry Chernyshenko, made the stance of the company quite clear, stating that the build and design of the slopestyle course will be based on the recommendations given by the FIS experts. However, he admitted that it is not yet clear
who would be handed the task of building the features.
Chernyshenko also failed to clarify whether the competitors would be taken on board while designing the course and features.
The FIS spokesperson, Riikka Rakic, was asked about the likely candidate that would be chosen to design the slopestyle course and whether FIS would involve the athletes of the two sports in the designing process, to which she replied, “It is too early to
comment on the details of actual course design at this stage. As for the athletes, there will be a number of test competitions [slopestyle test events begin in 2013] before the Games, from which the feedback from all parties -- athletes, coaches, National
Ski Associations, organizers and our own professionals -- will be taken into account.”
Ever since the International Olympic Committee approved the inclusion of ski and snowboard slopestyle to the 2011 Winter Games roster of events, there has been a heated debate going on regarding the design of the course within the freeskiing and snowboarding
community. The competitors are concerned that FIS may eliminate creativity from the slopestyle courses in order to achieve standardisation.
The concern is not only limited to the course that would be built for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia, but also the ones that would be built by FIS leading up to the Games.
The 2014 Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held in Sochi, Russia, from February 7-23, 2014. It will be the second time for Russia to host Olympics.
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