Glide smoothly over jib items such as kickers and rails on a long slope. Slopestyle is a battle between artists on snow, where you can't win unless you have a high level of skill and "style". Here are the essentials of Snowboard Slopestyle, a contest of creative tricks. This will increase your interest in watching TV and Internet games. By all means, let's acquire basic knowledge and enjoy the competition of techniques and styles!
Snowboard Slope Style | Snowboard Slope Style
All the Japanese team girls are medal candidates!
A must-see event full of big surprises
■Beijing Olympic Snowboard Slopestyle Competition Schedule
Snowboard slopestyle starts the day after the opening ceremony. Women's qualifiers, women's finals & men's qualifiers, men's finals, and a three-day schedule. The women's final, where Japan's chances of winning a medal is high, is on Sunday, so plan to watch it on TV. (Schedule may change due to weather conditions, etc.)
| Date and time | venue | Broadcast schedule | |
| February 5 (Sat) 9:30-10:49 (Japan time 10:30-11:49) | Women's Snowboard Slopestyle Qualifying Rounds 1-2 | Uncho Snow Park | Add any announcements |
| February 6 (Sun) 9:30-10:49 (Japan time 10:30-11:49) | Women's Snowboard Slopestyle Finals 1-3 | Uncho Snow Park | February 6th (Sun) 10:05~ live broadcast (NHK General) gorin.jp is here |
| February 7 (Mon) 12:00-13:19 (Japan time 13:00-14:19) | Men's Snowboard Slopestyle Finals 1-3 | Uncho Snow Park | February 7th (Monday) 13:05- live broadcast (NHK E Tele) gorin.jp is here |
■ Highlights of snowboard slopestyle at the Beijing Olympics
The stage is a special course consisting of two parts, a jib section and a jump section. Your performance will be graded. It is not enough to simply perform difficult techniques, but originality and creativity are also required. It is an event of the same system as the free ski slopestyle, and it will be more interesting to compare the two.
Last season's world champion Marcus Cleveland (Norway) has been sluggish this season in the men's competition, and the three World Cups were held in a mixed race with different winners for each tournament. In addition, the current situation is that there is a gap between Japanese male players and the world's top groups. On the other hand, the Japanese women are strong and boast a large pool of athletes with multiple medal contenders. Kokoro Murase finished 1st in the overall ranking with 1 win and 1 3rd place in the 3 races of this season's World Cup, while Reiraku Iwabuchi finished 3rd overall. Miyabi Onizuka also finished second in the World Cup. There is a good chance of winning multiple medals, boosting the excitement of the entire team.
▼2018 Pyeongchang Olympic snowboard slopestyle video
■Beijing Olympic snowboard slopestyle match format
From the preliminaries to the finals, it will be contested in this way.
- 〈Preliminary round〉Every player skates twice, and the highest score of each skater is adopted to determine the ranking, and the top 12 advance to the final.
- 〈Final〉Everyone skates 3 times, adopts the highest score, and decides the final ranking.
In the preliminary rounds, the running order is determined by lottery. Everyone skates twice, but the higher score is used instead of the total score. Since there are two chances, there are few cases in which leading athletes who are candidates for medals fail in the preliminary rounds unless there is an extraordinary event. There are three chances in the final (two in the World Cup). Therefore, athletes who aim for medals try big tricks here and try to get higher scores. In addition, the running order of the final will be from the bottom of the qualifying. High-ranking athletes in qualifying can ski after assessing the overall flow, so it is considered to be mentally advantageous.
*The match format and ranking format may change depending on the weather on the day.
■Beijing Olympic snowboard slopestyle venue
Uncho Snow Park
Approximately 180km northwest of Beijing, the Zhangjiakou area is visited by many snow sports enthusiasts in China. Untop Snow Park in an existing ski resort. Two venues, Park A for freestyle skiing and Park B for snowboarding, will accommodate 7,500 spectators each.
Slopestyle course unveiled
Here is the slopestyle course that was released the other day. The outstanding design is full of Chinese culture colors. The snow wall, which is reminiscent of the Great Wall of China, is laid out like a staircase and functions as a windbreak for the athletes who are skating. Divided into 6 sections, the variety, size, and perfection of the items, above all else, is highly acclaimed as a “next level” artistic course.
■ Athletes representing Japan in snowboard slopestyle at the Beijing Olympics 
[Men]
| name | Date of birth | where one is from | Affiliation | Number of Olympic appearances | |
| Ruki Tobita | @rukitobita | May 7, 1999 | Adachi-ku, Tokyo | Will Rays | first appearance |
| Kaito Hamada | @kaitohamada | October 14, 1999 | Sapporo, Hokkaido | Murasaki Sports Hokkaido | first appearance |
| Takeru Otsuka | @takeru_otsuka | April 2, 2001 | Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture | Burton | first appearance |
| Hiroaki Kunitake | @hiroaki_kunitake | February 10, 2002 | Agui Town, Aichi Prefecture | STANCER | 1 (Pyeongchang) |
[Women]
| name | Date of birth | where one is from | Affiliation | Number of Olympic appearances | |
| Miyabi Onitsuka | @miyabionitsuka | October 12, 1998 | Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture | Will Rays | 1 (Pyeongchang) |
| Reira Iwabuchi | @leila_iwabuchi | December 14, 2001 | Ichinoseki City, Iwate Prefecture | Burton | 1 (Pyeongchang) |
| Murase Kokomo | @cocomonsan | November 7, 2004 | Gifu City, Gifu Prefecture | Burton | first appearance |
| Rina Yoshika | @rinayoshik | April 9, 1999 | Ichinomiya City, Aichi Prefecture | STANCER | 1 (Pyeongchang) |
Among the four men's players, Ken Otsuka is currently ranked 16th at the top of the overall World Cup ranking. Below, Ruki Tobita is 21st, Hiroaki Kunitake is 27th, and Kaito Hamada is 33rd. In the women's event, it would not be strange for Miyabi Onizuka, Reiraku Iwabuchi, and Kokoro Murase to win medals, and we can expect the Japanese team to win gold and multiple medals.
Text/Daisuke Mizorogi
Edit/STEEP