Freeski Competition Rules for Athletes

You do not apply to FIS yourself. Your national ski association registers you with FIS for freeski, and that registration is the licence (ICR 203). It runs for one licence year, 1 July to 30 June (ICR 203.1), so a licence used in March 2026 does not cover a contest in December 2026.

For the licence your association needs a copy of your passport and the signed Athletes Declaration. For a skier under age, a parent or legal guardian countersigns the forms (ICR 203.3). During one licence year you can hold a FIS licence from one national association only (ICR 203.4).

The registration gives you a FIS code, the number printed next to your name on official start and result lists together with bib, nation and year of birth (ICR 3701.1). Keep it at hand when you enter: organisers match entries and points lists by that code.

When the unofficial start list goes up, check your line straight away. Your team captain has 15 minutes to report an error to the jury. After that the list becomes official (ICR 2020.2).

FIS checks your age as it will be on 31 December of the competition year (ICR 2013.1.2). A skier born in November 2013 is therefore treated as 13 for the whole 2026/27 season.

The minimum age for halfpipe, slopestyle and big air is 13. World Cups, World Championships and the Olympics require 15, and junior events end at 17 (ICR 2013.3.1 to 2013.3.3). The ICR prints the result as birth years, shown in the table.

The U13 class earns no FIS points. U13 (birth years 2014 to 2015) is a class at junior and children's competitions with several age groups (ICR 2013.3.4), so the result does not appear on the points list that seeds later start lists.

National cups set their own groups. In the Polish Cup 2025/26, for example, the PZN youngest class (Młodzik) covered birth years 2013 to 2015, one year wider than the FIS U13 row, and only skiers with an active PZN licence and a valid medical check could start. Read your national series rules before you compare them with the FIS table.

Qualification start lists are built from the WSPL or FIS points list, or another list the jury agrees on. If you are not on it, you go into the group of skiers without points (ICR 3604.1). For a first-season junior, that means a late start in the heat.

At Continental Cups and above, each heat is split into groups by seeding rank (1 to 10, 11 to 20, 21 onwards) and each group is drawn separately (ICR 3604.1.1). Whether group 1 or group 2 skis first is announced at the team captains' meeting. If you were drawn first in two events in a row, your team captain can ask for a redraw.

In a big air final the order holds for the first two runs. The third run goes in reverse order of the standings after run 2, so the leader drops last (ICR 3604.3.1).

The head judge tells the starter that the panel is ready, and the starter releases you with a voice and visual signal. The ICR gives the sequence as an example (ICR 3610).

1. "Judges ready"
2. The starter signals that you can go
3. "Bib number 22 dropping in"

Leave without that signal and it is a false start. You get no re-run, and the starter reports your bib to the jury (ICR 3610.2).

If you are not ready on time, you lose that run and it goes on the list as DNS (ICR 3610.3). A jury member may excuse the delay for force majeure and let you start later in the heat. A broken binding or feeling slightly ill does not count as force majeure. A skier who does not start within a reasonable time is Not Permitted to Start and marked DNS.

Pushing off the start posts is allowed, and so is a push from another person (ICR 3610).

After the start command, your run is judged up to the point where you stop or take your skis off, even if you pull up before the first feature. There is no re-run for that (ICR 3609). You get a score and a rank.

Two situations end a run early.

• You stop for more than 10 seconds. You are scored up to that point and should leave the course. The head judge makes the call (ICR 3612.1).
• You lose one ski or both, or take them off. The run counts as finished and is scored (ICR 3612.3).

Walking or hopping back up does not end your run. It is allowed while both skis stay on correctly (ICR 3612.3).

A re-run is for skiers who were hindered: a fallen skier who did not clear the course, an official or a spectator in the way, equipment lying on the landing, the video system missing your run. Stop at once, raise your hand and leave to the side of the course. Your team captain can also make the claim (ICR 3611.2).

The jury may grant a provisional re-run and confirm it before the phase ends. Once approved, the re-run stands even if it scores lower than your first attempt. Scores themselves cannot be protested (ICR 3611.1.1).

A crash helmet is compulsory at every FIS snowboard, freestyle and freeski event, worn as the manufacturer intends (ICR 2012.6). Breaking the equipment rules, the helmet rule included, can mean being Not Permitted to Start (ICR 2023.2). The Polish Cup 2025/26 rules say the same: all skiers must start in helmets.

Poles are a freeski question that snowboarders never face. The Judges Handbook calls skiing with poles mandatory at Level 1 and 2 events: Olympics, World Cups, World Championships, Junior Worlds, Continental Cups and Youth Olympic Games. A skier who competes without poles there is scored in the crash range.

Each judge gives a whole number from 0 to 100. Your run score is the average, truncated after two decimals (ICR 3403). For freeski overall impression the handbook gives judges recommended ranges, shown below. The ranges shift with the level of the field, so a 60 at a regional contest and a 60 at a World Cup are different runs.

In best 2 out of 3, your two counting tricks must be different. Land the same type of trick twice and only the higher score counts. If you do only two jumps in the phase, your single best score counts (ICR 3502.3.1).

What counts as "different" is set at the team captains' meeting before the first training session. Women and men may use different versions at the same event.

• Clockwise / Counterclockwise: spin direction separates the tricks.
• 2 of 4 Directions: for skiers the four directions are Right, Left, Switch Right and Switch Left.

In both versions a flip with 180 degrees or more of added rotation becomes a rotational trick, and straight airs count as their own type. Ask your coach which version was agreed before you plan your three jumps.

If you repeat a trick, the judges may mark the repeat DNI (ICR 3703.4).

DNI (Does Not Improve) appears in phases where your best run counts. A run that does not beat your earlier best is not scored (ICR 3703.4). It says nothing about a fall.

DNS has three meanings depending on what you missed. Miss the whole contest after the start list is out and you get no place. Miss one run and you are ranked on the runs you did. Miss a semifinal or final and you are last in that phase (ICR 3703.1).

When your contest runs on JudgeMate, this is what a skier and a parent see.

• Start list and results are public by default on the event page and in live scores. The organiser can hide results, and results of a private event are visible only to its members.
• Year of birth only. If the organiser imports a sheet with a full date of birth, JudgeMate keeps the year. It appears as one YB column only when the organiser makes it public.
• Your answers stay private by default. Fields such as a phone number or club licence are visible to the event staff. Only a field the organiser marks as public (up to 40 characters, for example nation) shows on the start list and results.
• Your scores tab shows your own place, total and run-by-run scores when you entered with a JudgeMate account. It does not show which judge gave what.
• DNI is set by a judge from your second run onwards, never automatically.

In a final, JudgeMate splits ties by best run, then second-best run, then best trick when the category uses one, then third-best run. ICR 3503 leaves tied skiers on the same rank. Ask the organiser which rule the bulletin uses.

How the panel reads a freeski run is explained on the freeskiing page and in the FIS judging handbook guide.