The 2018 Winter Olympics have just kicked off in Pyeongchang, South Korea. once again, slopestyle and halfpipe skiers are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest of the world’s top winter athletes to represent their nations and hopefully, grab a bit of that Olympic glory for themselves.
If ski slopestyle and Ski halfpipe are events you can’t miss at this Olympics, we’ve got you covered here with all the important information: the course, athletes, and how to watch in Europe and North America.
The first images of the slopestyle course at Bokwang Pheonix Park ski resort have been coming in via social media, and it looks spectacular. With three creative rail tiers, followed by an equally creative set of three jump features, this course should help competitors show the sport at its top level. Let’s take a feature-by-feature walkthrough. (All images courtesy of Schneestern Instagram.)
A total of 103 skiers representing 21 different nations will be dropping into the Olympic slopestyle or halfpipe, from powerhouse freestyle nations like the U.S., Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand and the Scandinavian countries, as well as a few fun outliers like Robbie Franco, skiing slopestyle for Mexico, or Brendan Newby representing Ireland in the halfpipe.
Mens Slopestyle | Women’s Slopestyle | Men’s Halfpipe | Women’s Halfpipe | |
Australia | Russ Henshaw | |||
Austria | Lara Wolf | Andreas Gohl Marco Ladner Lukas Müllauer | Elisabeth Gram | |
Canada | Alex Beaulieu-Marchand Alex Bellemare Teal Harle Evan McEachran | Dara Howell Kim Lamarre Yuki Tsubota | Simon D’Artois Noah Bowman Mike Riddle | Rosalind Groenewoud Cassie Sharpe |
Chile | Dominique Ohaco | |||
China | Kong Xiangrui Mao Bingqiang | Chai Hong Wu Meng Zhang Kexin | ||
Denmark | Laila Friis-Salling | |||
Finland | Joona Kangas | Anni Kärävä | ||
France | Antoine Adelisse Benoit Buratti | Lou Barin Tess Ledeux | Thomas Krief Kevin Rolland | Anais Caradeux Marie Martinod |
Germany | Kea Kühnel | Sabrina Cakmakli | ||
Hungary | Elizabeth Swaney | |||
Ireland | Brendan Newby | |||
Japan | Ayana Onozuka Saori Suzuki Yurie Watabe | |||
Mexico | Robert Franco | |||
New Zealand | Jackson Wells Finn Bilious | Nico Porteous Miguel Porteous Byron Wells Beau-James Wells | Janina Kuzma Britt Hawes | |
Norway | Øystein Bråten Ferdinand Dahl Felix Usterud Christian Nummedal | Johanne Killi Tiril S. Christiansen | ||
Russia | Lana Prusakova Anastasia Tatalina | Pavel Chupa | Valeriya Demidova | |
South Korea | Lee Mee-hyun | Lee Kang-bok | Jang Yu-jin | |
Sweden | Henrik Harlaut Oscar Wester Oliwer Magnusson Jesper Tjäder | Emma Dahlström Jennie-Lee Burmansson | ||
Switzerland | Elias Ambühl Fabian Bösch Jonas Hunziker Andri Ragettli | Mathilde Gremaud Sarah Höfflin | Robin Briguet Joel Gisler Rafael Kreienbühl | |
United Kingdom | Tyler Harding James Woods | Isabel Atkin Katie Summerhayes | Murran Buchan Alexander Glavatsky-Yeadon Peter Speight | Rowan Cheshire Molly Summerhayes |
United States | Gus Kenworthy Nick Goepper McRae Williams Alex Hall | Maggie Voisin Devin Logan Caroline Claire Darian Stevens | Torin Yater-Wallace David Wise Alex Ferreira Aaron Blunck | Maddie Bowman Brita Sigourney Devin Logan Annalisa Drew |
Keep checking Downdays over the next week for full breakdowns on who to watch in each individual competition.
That's okay, it's easy to lose track. Here are the winners of ski slopestyle and halfpipe's Olympic debut four years ago at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. All of them except men's slopestyle gold-medal winner Joss Christensen (who's been fighting injuries) are competing in Pyeongchang.
Freeskiing Medalists - 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics | ||||
Mens Slope | Women’s Slope | Men’s Pipe | Women’s Pipe | |
Gold | Joss Christensen | Dara Howell | David Wise | Maddie Bowman |
Silver | Gus Kenworthy | Devin Logan | Mike Riddle | Marie Martinod |
Bronze | Nick Goepper | Kim Lamarre | Kevin Rolland | Ayana Onozuka |
17 February: Women's Slopestyle Qualifications & Final
18 February: Men's Slopestyle Qualifications & Final
19 February: Women’s Halfpipe Qualifications
20 February: Women’s Halfpipe Final
20 February: Men's Halfpipe Qualifications
22 February: Men's Halfpipe Final
EUROPE: Eurosport has the Olympic broadcasting rights for most of Europe, and will be showing Oympic coverage on Eurosport 1 and 2, as well as coordinating with national channels country-to-country. Eurosport is pay TV in most countries, but the German broadcast can be watched free for anyone armed with a digital satellite receiver. If you want to pay to play, you can buy a subscription to the Eurosport Player, and watch all events live at Eurosport.com.
Eurosport schedule (all times CET)
17 February 01:00 - Women's Ski Slopestyle Qualifications
17 FebRuary 04:00 - Women’s Ski Slopestyle Finals
18 February 01:00 - Men’s Ski Slopestyle Qualifications
18 FEbruary 04:15 - Men’s Ski Slopestyle Finals
19 February 01:00 - Women's Halfpipe Qualifications
20 February 01:30 - Women’s halfpipe finals
20 February 04:00 - Men's halfpipe qualification
22 February 02:30 - Men's halfpipe finals
North America: NBC in the United States and CBC in Canada are handling Olympic TV broadcasting for our friends across the pond. All times EST.
NBC SCHEDULE
16 February - Women’s slopestyle, 11:56 p.m. (NBC, 12:35-2 a.m.)
18 February - Men’s slopestyle, 12:11 a.m. (NBC, 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 17-1:30 a.m. Feb. 18)
19 February - Women’s halfpipe, 9:18 p.m. (NBC, 8-11:30 p.m.)
21 February - Men’s halfpipe, 10:22 p.m. (NBC, 8-11 p.m.)
And of course, you can keep up with the Olympic action right here on Downdays, where we'll be providing you with in-depth competition previews, full results and analysis throughout the next weeks.
Last but certainly not least, here´s Cool Runnings, without which no Olympics is complete.