Freestyle and freeski: judged runs and raced heats.

Two families in one rulebook

The FIS Statutes (Edition 2026, art. 2.2) list "Freestyle and Freeski" as one entry with two codes, FS and FK. ICR Book VI, the joint rulebook for snowboard, freestyle and freeski (Edition June 2026, approved by the FIS Council in June 2026), sorts the events like this:

Article 2029.1 also requires that both women and men can compete in the freestyle events. The SBFSFK Precisions for the Southern Hemisphere (Edition 2026/27, June 2026) record that the event formerly called the "Rail Event" is renamed "Street Style" in the ICR.

The freeski venues

ICR Book VI (June 2026, art. 3102) describes each park and pipe venue, with figures given by venue level (A, B or C).

• Halfpipe (art. 3102.2): a channel built in the snow. A Level A pipe is 22 ft (6.7 m) high from the bottom to the coping, with at least 160 m of rideable length (170 m recommended); Level B is 18 ft and Level C 15 ft.
• Slopestyle (art. 3102.3): a course of hits, jumps, rails, tables and other features with two or more lines to choose from; a Level A course has at least 150 m vertical drop and an average gradient of 10 degrees or steeper.
• Big air (art. 3102.4): a single jump fed by a drop-in ramp at least 30 m long and 5 m wide.
• Street style (art. 3102.5): a course of street-style features such as boxes, wall-rides and jibs with two or more lines, on a slope 10 m to 30 m wide.

How the judged events are scored

Halfpipe, slopestyle and big air

Under ICR Book VI (June 2026, arts. 3402 and 3403), the judging criteria are execution, difficulty, amplitude, variety and progression. Each judge scores from 0 to 100 without decimals. Under the overall impression system, three to seven judges score, and with six or more the highest and lowest scores are discarded.

Moguls and dual moguls

FIS's Freestyle Skiing Judging Handbook (Edition October 2026) describes moguls as one run of free skiing on a steep, heavily moguled course, stressing technical turns, aerial manoeuvres and speed (JH 6201 and 6202). Turns count for 60% of the score, air for 20% and speed for 20%. In the seven-judge format (JH 6203.1), five judges score turns and deductions, with the high and low discarded, two judges score the two jumps, and a speed score from the run time is added.

Dual moguls (JH 6301) are knockout rounds: pairs race side by side on a moguled course and the winner of each pair advances. Judges pick the better skier on turns and air, and speed is scored from the time difference at the finish (JH 6303 and 6304). FIS named dual moguls among its innovations for the 2026 Olympics.

Aerials

Aerials (JH 6001 to 6003) are one or more acrobatic jumps from prepared kickers. Air counts for 20% (0 to 2.0 per judge), form for 50% (0 to 5.0) and landing for 30% (0 to 3.0). With five judges, the high and low in each component are discarded and the remaining total is multiplied by the jump's degree of difficulty. In aerials synchro (JH 6100 to 6102), pairs jump together and are scored 60% on synchronisation and 40% on the normal aerial evaluation.

Ski cross: a race, not a judged event

In a ski cross heat (ICR Book VI, June 2026, arts. 7400 and 7401), each competitor starts from a start device and races down an obstacle course marked by gates to the finish. A gate is passed when both ski tips and both feet cross the gate line; missing a gate means DNF (did not finish).

The Olympics website, seen only in a search summary because it timed out, describes ski cross as a qualifying phase followed by knockout heats of four on a course with jumps, rollers and banked turns. The heat size was not confirmed from the ICR for ski cross, so it is given here as unconfirmed. (For snowboard cross the ICR does give heat sizes: see snowboard.)

The Southern Hemisphere Precisions 2026/27 give recommended ski cross course lengths (ICR 7102.1.1) of 800 m to 1,300 m at Level A, at least 600 m at Level B and at least 450 m at Level C. The extracted text of that document shows tracked-change marks nearby, so those figures need checking against the ICR.

World Cup formats and points (2025/26 rules)

The FIS World Cup Rules for snowboard, freestyle, freeski and ski cross (Edition 2025/26, November 2025) set the season and formats:

• Season: these World Cups run between 1 July and 31 March each year (art. 1.1).
• Halfpipe and slopestyle (art. 2.7.1): qualification heats with the best of two runs, semi-finals with the best of two, and finals with the best of two or three.
• Big air (art. 2.7.2): qualification on the best of two runs, then semi-finals and finals scored on the best two of three runs.
• Ski cross (art. 4.9): any format in ICR 5500 or 7500 may be used; anything other than timed qualification or the "holistic" format must be agreed in advance with the organiser and the data provider.
• Points (art. 1.7.1): 100 for first, 80 for second, 60 for third, 50 for fourth, and so on down to 30th place.
• Titles (art. 1.5.1): an event title or overall title needs at least three competitions in that event in the season.
• Globes (art. 1.5.2): big globes include aerials, moguls overall (moguls and dual moguls), ski cross and freeski park and pipe overall (big air, halfpipe and slopestyle); small globes include aerials team, moguls, dual moguls and ski cross team.

Equipment, in brief

FIS's equipment specifications for snowboard, freestyle, freeski and ski cross (Edition 2026/2027, June 2026) set no limits on length, radius, width, flex, mass or construction for freestyle skis (B.2.2 and B.2.3). They require a recognised release binding and devices that stop runaway skis (B.3.1), and make helmets compulsory in all freestyle and freeski events (B.8). New for 2026/27, a cut-resistant undergarment is mandatory in ski cross at race level 1 (B.7.5). More is on helmets and standards and race suits, airbags and cut protection.

At the Olympics

FIS listed 15 freestyle medal events at Milano Cortina 2026 (seven men's, seven women's and one mixed): moguls, dual moguls, aerials, mixed team aerials, big air, slopestyle, ski cross and halfpipe. The Sports Examiner, in a report dated 7 July 2026 relaying the IOC Executive Board's 2030 programme decision, reports a ski cross mixed team event added for 2030; the IOC release itself was not opened. Results are on Milano Cortina 2026, and the sport's beginnings on freestyle and halfpipe.