Big air is a high-injury-risk sports discipline where the competitor rides a vehicle, such as a

motocross Motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The sport evolved from motorcycle trials competitions held in the United Kingdom. History Motocross first evolved in Britain from motorcycle trials competiti ...

motorcycle, a

skateboard A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks. The skateboarder ...

, a snowboard, or a pair of

ski A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partia ...

s, down a hill or ramp and performs aerial tricks after launching off very large jumps. In most versions, there is one large jump and therefore only one opportunity to perform a trick. It is an extreme version of

slopestyle Slopestyle is a winter sport in which athletes ski or snowboard down a course including a variety of obstacles including rails, jumps and other terrain park features. Points are scored for amplitude, originality and quality of tricks. The disc ...

. Competitors perform complex tricks in the air, aiming to attain sizable height and distance as well, all while making every effort to secure a clean landing. Many competitions also require the rider to do a specific trick to win the major prize. The term was coined by French-Canadians because of their love for the extreme nature of the event.

Skiing and snowboarding

Since 2004, Big Air Skiing has been featured in the

FIS Snowboard World Championships The FIS Snowboarding World Championships is the world championship organized by the FIS for Snowboarding. It was first held in 1996 and is now held every odd year. The championship events include Big air, Half-pipe, Parallel giant slalom, Parallel ...

. In 2018, Big Air became the newest snowboarding event introduced in the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

. In the

2022 Winter Olympic Games The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beij ...

, the ski Big Air event was held for the first time in Olympic history. The dedicated venue was

Big Air Shougang Big Air Shougang ( zh, c=首钢滑雪大跳台, p=Shǒugāng huáxuě dà tiàotái) is a sports stadium in the Shijingshan District in Beijing, China, built to host the big air events of the 2022 Winter Olympics. It is the world's first permanent ...

References

Snowboarding Freestyle skiing Freestyle motocross {{Wintersport-stub