Freestyle, alpine and the rest of skiing...

For years, freestyle skiing has struggled to gain a respectable spot in the competitive world, but for some strange reasons, it can't appear to gain ground on its alpine sibling in earning the respect and the support it seems it would deserve. This week, the world skiing freestyle championships are taking place right here, in Deer Valley and Park City and the first events have begun amidst arctic temperatures. Yesterday, a French boy and a Canadian girl won the moguls competition, but I haven't heard much about it, even coming from the French or Canadian media. The sport remains underground in spite of its telegenic appeal.

Already offering aerials, moguls, dual moguls, halfpipe and ski-cross, Freestyle skiing just added slopestyle in an effort to “beef-up” its offering. Yet, will adding more events confer Freestyle the recognition and the support it's been fighting to gain over the past four decades? Worldwide, skiing is a tiny industry, both in size and from a participation standpoint, with seemingly far too many families (alpine, cross-country, ski jumping, freestyle and snowboard) and adding more event in one single family seems to me a sure recipe to dilute even more the impact of the sport on would-be watchers, who a sure to get confused and lose interest. That's my two-cent; what's yours?