This was published 12 years ago
Sochi Winter Sports: Freestyle skiing
Fast fact
Freestyle skiing is a relatively new Olympic category, but one that Australia has had much success in. Three of our five Winter Olympic gold medals have been won by freestyle skiiers - Alisa Camplin (aerials), Dale Begg-Smith (moguls) and Lydia Lassila (aerials).
Fast fact:
Freestyle skiing was introduced during the 1992 Winter Games after being a demonstration sport in 1988. During the '92 Games only men's and women's moguls were part of the freestyle offering.
Fast fact:
But those Games in 1992 had aerials and ski ballet as demonstration sports under the Freestyle banner.
Fast fact:
Just two years later aerials was officially added to the program, but the ballet didn't quite take off.
New horizons
The category now conisits of aerials, moguls, ski cross and two new events added this year - slopestyle and half pipe. Slopestyle, made famous in the X-Games, requires a skiier to perform difficult tricks and gain maximum air off a series of jumps.
Gold rush
It was in this category that Alisa Camplin won Australia's second gold medal at a Winter Olympics. She was beaten to the punch in 2002 by Steve Bradbury, who won gold in the same year when all the rest of the competitors in the men's 1000m speed skating event fell over.
Back to back
Camplin also became the first Australian to win medals in back-to-back Winter Games when she finished with a bronze medal in the same event four years later.
Medal mogul
Moguls specialist Dale Begg-Smith won gold for Australia in 2006 in Turin.
Medal mogul
Begg-Smith, who is heading to Sochi as part of the 2014 Australian Olympic team, also picked up a silver for the men's moguls in Vancouver.
