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Philpug

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Here is a story from CBCNews:

Ski ballet is having a moment.

Videos from the late 1980s and early 1990s, when ski ballet was a demonstration sport — along with moguls and aerials — at the Calgary Winter Olympics and then again at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, are going viral.

Former Olympian Suzy Chaffee, who was an NBC alpine events commentator at the 1988 Games in Calgary, thinks now is exactly the right time to bring it back to the Winter Olympics, 26 years after it was shelved.

"Ski ballet is dancing down the mountains, embracing the mountains, poetry on skis," Chaffee said in a recent interview with CBC's Shannon Scott — and she would know.

After skiing for the American squad at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, Chaffee retired from the team and became one of the first female freestyle skiers, an early version of ski ballet.

georg-furmeier-and-annika-johansson-ski-ballet.JPG

Germany’s Georg Furmeier of Germany (L) at the 1987 FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup. Sweden’s Annika Johansson (R) in action at 1992 Winter Olympics. (Getty Images /Chris Cole/Allsport)

Even though there wasn't a female division, Chaffee won the world championship three years in a row — and then, after an appearance on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, launched a fundraising campaign to create a female division.

"I said, there's so many talented women at home, they can't afford to come for these events," she said. "But if we had some prize money for these women, they could have their own division.

"I ended up raising over $3 million for women's freestyle through Colgate. And we got higher ratings than the NCAA [basketball] playoffs."

So why did ski ballet disappear from the Olympics?

"I believe it got killed because 30 years ago, there were men who were running things who were afraid of the female side," she said. "And now with Dancing With Stars, and Torville and Dean, who do the choreography for your awesome [figure skating champions Tessa] Virtue and [Scott] Moir it's so [much more] acceptable. This generation could bring it back, because it's so much fun."


Campaign launched to bring ski ballet back to the Olympics3:58

Make sure you watch the video:

http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1169130563839/

The fun starts at 1:30 ;) ;) ;)

Full link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...ds-to-bring-back-to-winter-olympics-1.4550139
 

Karen_skier2.0

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Moseley did a fews turns with Natalie Morales at the games:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/exploring-slopes-pyeongchang-morales-and-moseley

And this just popped up on Twitter yesterday (although I think the video is a few years old):


The Bring Back Ballet Skiing group on Facebook describes the ups, downs, and ultimate demise of ballet skiing. The most disheartening thing I heard was that there were members of the FIS board that voted against ballet skiing without ever seeing it.
 

Andy Mink

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I would watch ski ballet more than I would watch a skating.
 

Tricia

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@socalgal does the HH kit in the video look familiar?
 

crgildart

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Freestyle does, indeed need three disciplines. They should also award the biggest prize money for the combined championship.. Tired of freesytle being one discipline specialists.. Way more fun for everyone when most compete in everything..
However, I think those three disciplines should be:

Big Air.. The current Aerials format is really only gymnasts who couldn't stay on their skis down a bump run

Slopestyle: Adding some ballet tricks is possible during the upper rails and boxes section

Moguls: No comments needed.. On second thought, ditch the two prefab jumps and have them focus more on turns and natural upright air, Already got enough REAL jumps in Slopestyle and Big Air under my proposal.

Halfpipe is a maybe for a fourth?? But that would require lots more resorts having a decent one.. Not fiscally viable most places..
 
Last edited:

Fishbowl

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Freestyle does, indeed need three disciplines. They should also award the biggest prize money for the combined championship.. Tired of freesytle being one discipline specialists.. Way more fun for everyone when most compete in everything..
However, I think those three disciplines should be:

Big Air.. The current Aerials format is really only gymnasts who couldn't stay on their skis down a bump run

Slopestyle: Adding some ballet tricks is possible during the upper rails and boxes section

Moguls: No comments needed.. On second thought, ditch the two prefab jumps and have them focus more on turns and natural upright air, Already got enough REAL jumps in Slopestyle and Big Air under my proposal.

Halfpipe is a maybe for a fourth?? But that would require lots more resorts having a decent one.. Not fiscally viable most places..

Make it like a Decathlon and include downhill, slalom and even ski cross. The final event could be a 15,000 meter cross country. I’d watch.
 

socalgal

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socalgal

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crgildart

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Here's an idea, how about incorporating a Ski Ballet section into the Slopestyle course?

Start with the Rail Section (kind of "Meh" imho), then have a Ski Ballet Section, then onto the Aerials Section.

So put the Ski Ballet section between the Rail and Aerials sections of the course.

GMTA @YolkyPalky

However, I think those three disciplines should be:

Big Air.. The current Aerials format is really only gymnasts who couldn't stay on their skis down a bump run

Slopestyle: Adding some ballet tricks is possible during the upper rails and boxes section

Moguls: No comments needed.. On second thought, ditch the two prefab jumps and have them focus more on turns and natural upright air, Already got enough REAL jumps in Slopestyle and Big Air under my proposal.

Halfpipe is a maybe for a fourth?? But that would require lots more resorts having a decent one.. Not fiscally viable most places..
 

Karen_skier2.0

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Freestyle does, indeed need three disciplines. They should also award the biggest prize money for the combined championship.. Tired of freesytle being one discipline specialists.. Way more fun for everyone when most compete in everything..
However, I think those three disciplines should be:

Big Air.. The current Aerials format is really only gymnasts who couldn't stay on their skis down a bump run

Slopestyle: Adding some ballet tricks is possible during the upper rails and boxes section

Moguls: No comments needed.. On second thought, ditch the two prefab jumps and have them focus more on turns and natural upright air, Already got enough REAL jumps in Slopestyle and Big Air under my proposal.

Halfpipe is a maybe for a fourth?? But that would require lots more resorts having a decent one.. Not fiscally viable most places..

Here's ballet meets park:

http://unofficialnetworks.com/2016/04/19/watch-ski-ballet-meets-park-skiing-squaw-valley-usa/
 

Karen_skier2.0

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Mosley's ski ballet is pretty damn good.

Jonny Moseley was an excellent combined skier. He was still skiing combined when he didn't qualify for Lillehammer in 1994. I'm actually surprised that he kept competing in the combined until 1996. He regularly placed in the top 10 in ballet on the World Cup. He was also a great aerial skier--bFFF (triple twisting triple).


And, don't forget, he did "Skating with the Stars".
 

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