Ski ballet

Ski ballet is a form of ballet performed on skis. It is very similar to figure skating, combining spins, jumps, and flips in a two-minute routine set to music.

Ski ballet was part of the professional freestyle skiing tours of the 1970s and 1980s. It was then an official FIS and Olympic discipline until the year 2000.

In the 1990s, ski ballet became known as Acroski. This was an effort to legitimize its place among the competitive ski community, especially with the FIS. It is no longer a part of competitive freestyle skiing.

Overview

Ski ballet involved a planned routine of flips, rolls, leg crossings, jumps, and spins performed on a smooth slope. After the mid-1970s, the routine was performed to music for 90 seconds. For a short time in the 1980s, there were also pair ballet competitions. In these, two skiers performed tricks that included spins, jumps, and leg crossings, as well as lifts and movements done at the same time. A panel of judges scored the performances in a similar way to figure skating.

Notable athletes

After her ski-racing career, Suzy Chaffee modelled in New York with Ford Models and became the leading freestyle ballet skier of the early 1970s. She is best known by the nickname Suzy Chapstick, from when she was a spokesperson for ChapStick lip balm. At the 1974 Freestyle Championship, Genia Fuller became the first person to win all four disciplines at one event, and she performed without ski poles, unlike other competitors. Lane Spina won medals at both Olympic demonstration events, at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada and the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.

Rune Kristiansen won a gold medal in ballet at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships 1995 and had 38 World Cup victories. He also competed in ski ballet at the 1992 Winter Olympics. George Fuehrmeier competed in ski ballet in 1985 and became popular after a video of his routine spread online during the 2018 Winter Olympics. Richard Schabl was the FIS World Champion in 1986 and invented the one-handed pole flip.

Olympic demonstration sport and decline in popularity

Main article: Freestyle skiing at the Winter Olympics

Ski ballet became so popular that it was chosen as a demonstration sport for the 1988 Winter Olympics and 1992 Winter Olympics. After 1992, however, its popularity fell a lot. It was never made an official Olympic sport, and young skiers became more interested in snowboarding and other snow sports.

By 2000, ski ballet had almost disappeared from international competition. That year, the International Ski Federation stopped all of its formal competitions in the sport.