During the last comp of the season, among the clouds and wind in Silvaplana, and with the knowledge that the snowboard slopestyle went down yesterday in pretty perfect conditions, we got to enjoy a few hours of weather hold and time to reflect. Overall, it feels like this has been a season has had positives for the competition circuit under FIS. There have been some more interesting courses, the judging has moved to reward some elements of creativity, though not always with much consistency. The Freeride World Tour was also moved under the FIS umbrella and, by and large, was a good watch. We might even have to go back to covering it next season because it felt like the excitement was back.
However, there is clearly a long way to go in many regards. One big one is still equality. Once again, the Silvaplana slopestyle final featured 16 ski men and 8 women. The Verbier Extreme (FWT Finals) featured 11 ski men and 5 ski women (one injury on each startlist we believe). And one thing is sure as shit, you aren't going to get equality of outcome without starting from a position of equality of opportunity. It's not a hard situation to fix. Just do 10 and 10? Although, if we were the two women just under that bubble line today who got to stay in bed rather than send in a windy whiteout, we could probably call it a silver lining just this once.
Women:
Men:
However, there is clearly a long way to go in many regards. One big one is still equality. Once again, the Silvaplana slopestyle final featured 16 ski men and 8 women. The Verbier Extreme (FWT Finals) featured 11 ski men and 5 ski women (one injury on each startlist we believe). And one thing is sure as shit, you aren't going to get equality of outcome without starting from a position of equality of opportunity. It's not a hard situation to fix. Just do 10 and 10? Although, if we were the two women just under that bubble line today who got to stay in bed rather than send in a windy whiteout, we could probably call it a silver lining just this once.
_
Women:
Men:
