The International Olympic Committee’s executive board announcement last week to delay any decision on skiing and snowboarding slopestyle contests at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi was applauded by increasingly influential snowboarding groups critical of the Olympic bureaucracy and politics.
, a newly formed union of high-profile competitive snowboarders trying to guide the direction of the sport as it grows into a global, Olympic enterprise, said the IOC’s decision to further study slopestyle is “a clear indication that the current qualification system has unresolved issues.”
Basically, the snowboarders are concerned that if slopestyle becomes an Olympic sport, skiing’s governing body, the International Federation of Skiing, or FIS, will launch a new Olympic-qualifying slopestyle tour that would hurt existing events and possibly muddle the sport’s development with bureaucratic point systems and conflicting schedules.
“We want one tour, and one qualification system,” We Are Snowboarding founder and top slopestyle rider Chas Guldemond said in a statement released last week. “Right now there are too many conflicting dates on the calendar. The consequences of this suggested tour would potentially lead to more injuries, more date conflicts and ultimately place a burden on snowboarding’s progression.”
Rider angst reached its apex this February when snowboarding icon Terje Haakonsen, who famously boycotted snowboarding debut in the 1998 Winter Games, issued his “.” Signed by some of the biggest names in snowboarding, the charter has begun enlisting more and more competitors with calls for athlete input in the development of the sport as it nears full integration into the Olympic Winter Games. Haakonsen’s charter urges the IOC to take a 180-degree turn that would allow existing slopestyle tours — not just ones supported by the FIS — to rank riders for Olympic qualification.
Arguing that the addition of yet-to-happen FIS World Championship slopestyle events would overlap with existing and established international contests like the 8-year-old, 180-event Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour, Haakonsen’s charter called for a unified Olympic ranking system for all world-class events, not just FIS events.
“We do not want a new world tour for slopestyle qualifications. We want an Olympic ranking to reduce the date conflicts of major events. We believe the International Olympic Committee has a responsibility to listen to our voices and make way for the unleashing of snowboarding’s true potential. We want all powers to start a dialogue to find a solution for the better good of the sport,” read a portion of the Snowboarding 180 Olympic Charter. “Preserving the status quo in snowboarding is not an option.”
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com
