The inaugural FIS Snowboard & Freestyle Junior World Championships came to a close yesterday after 11 days of successful competition

The event combined snowboard and freestyle ski in the same world championships for the first time and marked a new era in competitive snow sports paving the way for the potential introduction of new disciplines into the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

The Championships also marked the first time that Association of Freeski Professionals (AFP) allocated points to a FIS World Championships allowing competitors to accumulate points for both organisations’ world rankings, starting to pull all the different sections of the sport together.

Developing the future structure of snow sports

“It is very exciting New Zealand is so pivotal in developing the future structure of these snow sports,” said Junior World Championships event director, Arthur Klap. “Where the Junior World Championships are really significant is how they have enabled freestyle skiing and snowboarding to support each other both in their growth and also their extended involvement in the Winter Olympics. As golf has shown, even well established sports can gain considerable financial benefit by being included as an Olympic sport. More importantly for New Zealand snow sports, is the opportunity that it provides for our athletes to compete at the Olympics and so gain stronger recognition internationally and domestically.”

The Junior World Championships also provided an opportunity for New Zealand officials to gain international experience and learn from the international officials brought over for the event. This expertise has already seen a step up in delivery of events at the Junior World Championships and will provide valuable resource for next year’s 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games.

The 2010 FIS Snowboard & Freestyle Junior World Championships attracted over 350 athletes from 26 nations. The Marc Hodler Cup, which is awarded to the most successful nation at the Championships was awarded to the USA team for freestyle skiing and the Russian team for snowboarding.

Freeski slopestyle joins the ranks of FIS with two new junior world champions

USA dominated today as Bobby Brown (19) and Jamie Crane-Mauzy (17) made history as the first freeski slopestyle world champions at the 2010 Junior Snowboard & Freestyle World Championships.

North American success at freestyle ski halfpipe 

Noah Bowman (CAN) and Britta Sigourney (USA) were today crowned as the first FIS Junior World Champions in the freestyle ski halfpipe.

Norway and Switzerland take freestyle ski cross titles

The action was fast and furious in today’s freestyle ski cross at Cardrona Alpine Resort in the 2010 FIS Junior World Championships with Switzerland and Norway taking out the honours.

The battle in the women’s final was fierce with Fanny Smith (SUI) demonstrating how she has earned her top five ranking. The men’s race was equally competitive with Norwegian Didrik Bastian Juell taking the title after qualifying in third.

Photo Credit: Bel Jones