If you watched the Calgary, AL Olympics in 1988 and the Albertville, France Olympics in 1992, you may remember a peculiar sport known as “ski ballet”. It was presented during just these two Games as a demonstration sport but never came back to its former glory.
We feel compelled to ask: WHY, of why, was this fabulous sport dropped? It’s so entertaining to watch! See for yourself, as one of the great masters, Hermann Reitberger, performs his routine in Calgary, in 1988:
Anyways… Back to our burning question: WHY was ski ballet dropped? A National Post “Winter Games” podcast asked former champion Steve Hambling and got a scathing response. According to Hambling, the Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS) killed off the sport because they didn’t consider it to be “proper” skiing.
It was a murder! I just think they didn’t think it was skiing, and to that end, I believe I’m correct in stating that the president of the FIS, I believe, if you go back and you look on the Internet, you’ll find where he was quoted as saying that “freestyle is not skiing”. And, you know, needless to say, everybody in the freestyle community just flipped out! What are you talking about, “freestyle is not skiing”? It’s skiing! You’ve got a pair of skis on, right? Yeah… Well then you’re skiing! So, why? In my mind, they just didn’t like it. It wasn’t “ski enough” for them.
Click here to listen to the full podcast.
After 1992, the FIS continued overseeing formal ski ballet competitions, but the sport never made its grand return to the Olympics, despite attempts to bring it back in 1998 and 2002. The FIS eventually ceased all formal ski ballet competition in 2000.