Sauze d’Oulx, Italy – Since its origin on the slopes of the American West, freestyle skiing has always been about the show. And for the members of the U.S. men’s Olympic freestyle team, it’s show time.
“I like to give people a show,” said Vail moguls skiing star Toby “Awesome” Dawson. “It’s nice to be on a course where you can flash your turns a little more, and I think the Olympic course suits my style.”
Dawson, the reigning world champion in dual moguls racing, is among a cast of American mogul skiing specialists who have achieved near celebrity status in the competitive bump-bashing world, following in the footsteps of 1998 Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley. Moseley accomplished two aerial firsts in Olympic competition: the “360 iron cross mute grab” (a full spin while crossing skis and grabbing a ski edge with one hand), which helped him win the gold medal in Nagano; and in 2002 the “Dinner Roll,” an off-axis spin that reset the bar for aerials in the sport.
While thrilling spectators, the Dinner Roll did less to impress the judges, leaving Moseley in fourth place. But it changed the game forever.
Before Moseley’s performance at the Salt Lake City Games, inverted aerials (flips, basically) were deemed too dangerous and banned from competition. Since Moseley’s trick was little more than a loophole in the flip rule (his skis never actually came over his head because he was off-axis), competition officials decided to revisit the policy and allow qualified athletes to perform inverts on the World Cup tour.
The result is a new generation of impressive aerials in the middle of moguls competition that includes back flips, front flips and “D-Spin 720s,” a sort of Dinner Roll derivative.
“I’ve been in the sport for 15 years now, and every year I think we’re at the peak of the sport, when someone throws a backflip or someone else throws a double backflip,” said U.S. moguls competitor Travis Cabral of Lake Tahoe, Calif. “Every year we’re at the next phase of the sport.”
But today marks the first time in the sport’s history that the men will unleash the inverted aerial assault on the big screen otherwise known as the Olympics. And while turning style still counts for 50 percent of the overall score, speed down the slope and a pair of airs on each run split the remainder of the score.
Rest assured that U.S. skiers have adapted well to the new rules in this quintessential American sport. Beyond Dawson’s world championship status in the “dual,” or head-to-head, races not included in Olympic competition, Jeremy Bloom of Loveland and Colorado football fame is the reigning World Cup champion in the Olympic discipline, having won a record six consecutive events last season, including one on the Olympic course at Sauze d’Oulx. The duo will be joined by 2002 Olympic silver medalist Travis Mayer of Steamboat and 2003 World Cup moguls champion Cabral. Competition among the U.S. men is so stiff that the team could not find room for reigning world champion Nate Roberts of Utah.
“I have to give credit to all my teammates,” Bloom said. “We push each other day in and day out, and it’s an honor to be able to train with them and compete against them.”
That’s not to say the Americans have a lock on the moguls podium. Dale Begg-Smith of Australia is the current World Cup points leader heading into the Olympics, and Alexandre Bilodeau, 18, of Canada has won twice on the tour this season, including the last event before the Games.
