With the completion of Tuesday's Snowboard big air competition at Cardrona Alpine Resort, the FIS Freestyle and Snowboard Junior World Championships 2010 drew to a close.

The outstanding on-snow competitions were complemented by the overall significance of the championships; for the number of world firsts attained; for the potential Olympic implications, and for the unique opportunities it afforded rising stars from the 28 nations represented.

Besides being the first FIS World Championships in New Zealand and the first combined Freestyle & Snowboard World Championships, the ski and snowboard slopestyle competitions at Snow Park marked the first time FIS has included the competitions in a FIS World Championship. Last Sunday also saw new levels of excellence in the ski halfpipe competition. Both ski halfpipe and snowboard slopestyle are up for consideration for inclusion in the 2014 Olympics following decision at the 2010 FIS Congress.

Sarah Lewis, FIS Secretary General stated: "There is great synergy between the new Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding competition forms and an efficient use of the same infrastructure for halfpipe, slopestyle and the ski and snowboard cross course. The FIS World Championships in Kreischberg, Austria in 2015 will also feature both disciplines for the first time at senior level and there is significant interest to create joint World Cup events too."

After 12 Snowboard competitions and six Freestyle events, Russia received the Marc Hodler Trophy for the most successful Snowboard nation at the championships whilst USA picked up the coveted award for the most successful Freestyle nation, followed by Switzerland and Canada.

In terms of medals, the overall medals table for both Snowboard and Freestyle was led by USA with a total of 11 medals (3-5-3) followed by Finland with 5 (3-1-1) and Russia with 6 (2-1-3). Altogether 17 nations won medals.

FIS news
1/09/2010

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