TIME TO PUT THE BACKCOUNTRY RIDERS IN THE OLYMPIC RING?! The International Olympic Committee announced today that freeride snowboarding will make its debut in the Alpes 2030 Olympic Winter Games alongside freeride skiing. The news came along with a press release stating that the Alpes 2030 Games will be the first gender-equal Winter Olympics with a 50% women and 50% men quota for the roughly 3,000 athletes that qualify. The debut of a new discipline in snowboarding is big news (and means more snowboarding), but as sure as the sky is blue, this move will be hotly debated over the coming months and winters amongst riders, fans and industry members. Keep in mind, this is just the first announcement, and we expect confusing qualifying information and all that to be hitting our inboxes soon.
Freeriding has always been a cornerstone of the culture, but bringing it into a contest format has largely fallen flat in the U.S. for viewership, with some exceptions. The Natural Selection Tour is one of those exceptions, highlighting some of the best backcountry riders currently out there and drawing quite the audience online with insane conditions and a top level bracket. But will they be involved? We don’t know yet. A lot has been said in the lead-up to this announcement behind closed doors on who would participate or not, but now that it is a reality, it will be interesting to see who throws their hat onto the big stage. Will the points all be run through The Freeride World Tour rankings or will there be an alternative route like other disciplines? The FWT had a large rollout this morning and has had a business relationship with the FIS since 2022 when the governing body acquired the contest. They also ran a world championship event last season that is outside of their normal purview, which some considered a potential test event for today’s announcement.
But where the points come from is for another day. Today is all about dumb dreams. Could we see Travis Rice don a bib and U.S. uniform sponsored by Ralph Lauren? Will Zoi Sadowski-Synnott cement her place with an even higher medal count possibility that leaves everyone else in the dust? Elena Hight back at the O-Show? Will Red Gerard and Mark McMorris go for another round? Will slope and pipe riders reconsider their tracks and try their hand on a new face? WILL BLAKE MOLLER AND BLAKE PAUL BATTLE FOR THE HEARTS OF AMERICANS ON WHO IS THEIR FAVORITE BLAKE?! Who will compete in the FWT when snow conditions aren’t always the best and be able to ride away? We have four years. We will probably be writing a ton about this. So go read the official press releases below and dare to dream… or just complain that the Olympics are ruining snowboarding for the 1,000th time. It has some validity, absolutely, but we are going glass half full right now and saying more snowboarding is a good thing… as long as there is still snow.
From the IOC:
The Alpes 2030 Olympic Winter Games will make history as the first Winter Games with gender parity. The athlete quota places will be distributed equally. Some 3,046 athletes (1,525 female and 1,521 male, including athletes in ski mountaineering proposed by the OCOG as an additional sport) are set to compete across 126 events – 56 for women, 55 for men and 15 mixed. This was confirmed today by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board (EB) as part of the discipline and event review. As part of the review, it was decided that freeride (ski and snowboard) and synchro9 (figure skating) athletes will feature for the first time on an Olympic stage. The IOC EB also confirmed the retention of snowboard parallel giant slalom, while Nordic combined was not retained.
Freeride (ski and snowboard) and synchro9 (figure skating) will make their first appearance on the Olympic stage at Alpes 2030.
Freeride has experienced rapid international growth, benefitting from a strong youth fanbase and visually spectacular competition. It uses a natural field of play, which minimises its impact on the Games. Comprising four events, it will provide an Olympic opportunity for 44 athletes (22 women and 22 men) to compete at the Games for the first time. Freeride started in the 1990s to develop as a discipline.
The inclusion of synchro9, a team event, is a key factor in achieving gender parity at Alpes 2030. The event will be contested in the existing figure skating venue. Synchronised skating has demonstrated strong spectator appeal and delivers a dynamic competition atmosphere. It was officially recognised as a discipline by the International Skating Union (ISU) in the 1990s.
From U.S. Ski & Snowboard:
U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the National Governing Body for skiing and snowboarding in the United States, announces the addition of freeride skiing and snowboarding as a new U.S. Ski & Snowboard discipline. The announcement is in line with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to add freeride to the program for the 2030 Olympic Winter Games in the French Alps.
“Freeride’s addition to the Olympic program confirms that these athletes belong on the biggest stage in the world,” said U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt. “We are proud to build a pathway for the best American freeriders throughout the next four years, and are eager to watch them represent Team USA in 2030.”
Freeride is a discipline in which skiers and snowboarders descend natural, ungroomed terrain rather than a set course, choosing their own line through features like cliffs, chutes and powder fields. Athletes are judged on a combination of line choice, control, fluidity, technique and style, rather than on time.
The International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) acquired the Freeride World Tour in 2022 and officially named freeride as a sport in 2024. U.S. Ski & Snowboard has recognized the discipline at the international level since naming a team to the FIS Freeride World Championships in Andorra in 2026. Alpes 2030 will be freeride’s first Olympic appearance, with hope for inclusion in future Games.
“Bringing this discipline into our high-performance system means our coaches and sport scientists can start supporting these athletes now, well ahead of 2030,” said Anouk Patty, U.S. Ski & Snowboard Chief of Sport. “We are excited to welcome them to our organization.”
