Freestyle skiing has passed the test of time

The world cup Freestyle event held at Deer Valley over the weekend was, for me, yet another lesson in the age-old adage: Never say never.

I once wrote a column announcing the impending death of freestyle skiing. It was at a time when the sport had been banished from the United States only to survive by doing gigs in small European and Canadian resorts.

My colleague, columnist Lee Benson, likes to remind me, often, of my written words, something like, "Freestyle is dead."

I was wrong. I admit it. Freestyle lives . . . and will long after I've turned in my skis. As it is today, freestyle is exciting and entertaining. The athletes are professional and the sport is strictly controlled. That's the key — controlled. When it was born, it wasn't.

The 7,000-plus spectators that patiently waited for 90 minutes on Saturday night for the winds to quiet, then stood around in the cold to watch skiers flip and spin in the air, is proof enough to the stability of freestyle.

The field of aerialists stuck double full-full-fulls, which are three flips with four twists, two twists on the first flip right off the jump, with only a few bobbles on landing. In the air they were nearly perfect.

That, however, was not always the case. As I mentioned, back in the 1980s, the struggling freestyle tour couldn't get a gig in the United States.

A bad reputation and too many injuries in the aerial department had ski resorts locking and double bolting their doors when freestylers came knocking.

One of the first freestyle aerialists in this country was Stein Eriksen, now ambassador of skiing at Deer Valley. A trained gymnast in his youth, the Olympic gold medalist used to perform flips on skis — intentionally — back when it was unheard of.

In the beginning, freestyle was a three-event production — moguls, aerials and ballet.

Ballet was the most colorful. Skiers dressed in costumes and on very short skis, put on a choreographed display of spins, flips, graceful turns and mimed expressions.

One of the best at ballet was Alan Schoenberger, who took his one-man performance on the road and, for the past 20 years, has been entertaining audiences around the world with artful skiing onstage.