Year 2 of the ski ballet throwback at the SSWSC Winter Carnival

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Now that the SSWSC is including a ski ballet competition in the Winter Carnival festivities, I was asked to enlighten the viewers of exactly what ski ballet is (was).

Ski ballet originated as part of the beginnings of freestyle skiing. Everyone did it along with moguls and aerials (sometimes in the same run using only one pair of skis). Over time, it became more specialized and made an appearance in two Olympic Games as a demonstration sport (1988 & 1992). The scoring was similar to skating with artistic impression, choreography and degree of difficulty all being part of the judging criteria.

Each routine is precisely executed to the beats, flow, and rhythms of specifically chosen soundtracks, again much like ice skating. Shortly after 92, with the rising popularity of free skiing and the International Ski Federation not continuing to support it, it became a thing of the past. Now it has a retro and throwback feeling which makes it fun for those who remember it and even those who don’t!

As a witness to the sport during the 92 Olympics, I have no doubt that the athletes were hyper skilled and worked hard at their craft. It’s easy to discount this as it’s a thing of the past, but I had a lot of admiration for the women and men that worked hard at it and were competitive.

For me, I only did it for about a week. It was never my thing (I specialized in moguls), but I was roped into doing it last year at the winter carnival (thanks Blair Seymor), and it felt really old school, fun and back to the essence and roots of freestyle skiing (which I was really too young to really understand).

The comradery was amazing, the crowd was stoked. I would recommend coming to see this new Winter Carnival event in 2024!

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