This week, the International Olympic Committee announced the addition of three new disciplines to the Winter Olympic Games starting in 2030, including freeride skiing and snowboarding, which will debut at the 2030 Games in the French Alps.
Although this was a long-anticipated move, it still feels like a shocking next step for the sport. “Freeriding becoming a part of the Olympics is something I never would have imagined,” Flylow athlete and longtime Freeride World Tour competitor Ross Tester told Powder Magazine. “The idea of potentially becoming an Olympic athlete is really exciting. I think it would be awesome for elevating our sport in every way. Being able to share what we do with the world will mean a lot.”
The road to Olympic inclusion goes back years. In December 2022, FIS—the international ski federation—acquired the Freeride World Tour and the two organizations merged. In 2024, FIS recognized freeride skiing and snowboarding as official FIS disciplines, a requirement for Olympic inclusion. And in 2026 in Andorra, the first-ever FIS Freeride World Championships were held. All of that felt like a precursor for this week’s big announcement: Big-mountain freeskiing and snowboarding are now Olympic sports.