By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org

WATERVILLE VALLEY – The last FIS World Cup Freestyle competition before teams are chosen for the Winter Olympics is being held here this week and tickets are $26 to ski, ride and watch or $20 to access the venue by chairlift.

People can also walk to the event for no charge on Thursday and Friday, Jan. 15 and 16.

The best freestyle skiers in the world will be hitting the bumps on Lower Bobby’s run at Waterville Valley for this, the 2026 Intermountain Health Freestyle Cup. Tickets and more information can be found here https://www.waterville.com/2026-world-cup.

Both men and women will be competing not only for points and the podium but for the honor of heading to the 2026 Milan Cortino Winter Olympics, Feb. 6-22. Teams will be announced online a few days after this event.

NBC has the rights to broadcast the event and will likely broadcast it next Sunday between 4 and 6 p.m., officials said.

The Waterville Valley course is 246 meters with a 28 degree pitch meaning it is steep, bumped up and precisely designed for competition with two jumps. Athletes are judged on their movement through the moguls keeping their upper bodies relatively still and skis pointed down the fall line, hitting the elements and are timed with the points adding up to a possible 100.

The first day will be single competition while the second day will be dual mogul competition for both men and women. This Olympics will be the first time that dual moguls are introduced as an event while in the past, single mogul competition has existed at the Olympics.

The U.S. Women’s team is particularly poised to do well, said Loon’s freestyle program director Wesley Preston, who was on Bobby’s with his athletes on Sunday. He noted this this will be intense and emotional competition.

Preston is also program director at Freestyle America in Campton, who, with his parents the freestyle coaching legends Nick and Suzie Preston have been training athletes since 1983, here and in other venues.

He said New Hampshire got the international FIS nod for this race after Deer Valley Utah had to back out.
He said at the time they had to decide, Deer Valley was not able to host the event due to lack of snow and warm temperatures.

In New Hampshire, that has not been the case, as the winter started early and has stayed pretty much since Thanksgiving, though for Waterville Valley it has been “nine months of work in three weeks,” said Jamie Cobbett, marketing and event director for Waterville Valley. He said they are ready.

Preston said, “This is a big deal with a lot of pressure which makes it exciting…leading to the Olympics. I think there will be a lot of cheers and tears at the bottom of the course.”

He said the past two years Waterville Valley has hosted FIS World Cup Freestyle races but this season, it did not make the compressed schedule due to the Olympics.

In a recent press release, Tim Smith, president and general manager of Waterville Valley Resort, said: “We have tremendous respect for Deer Valley and the incredible work they do hosting world-class events. Snow conditions are unpredictable and is something every resort understands, we appreciate the immense effort they put into their mountain. We’re honored to step in and proud that Waterville Valley can rise to the occasion.

“Hosting an event of this scale on a compressed timeline is no small task, but our staff, partners, and community are fully committed and excited to come together quickly to deliver an exceptional experience for athletes, fans, and organizers alike,” he said.

Waterville Valley calls itself the birthplace of Freestyle skiing and claims the first-ever competition in the sport was held here in the 1970s.

The course with its bumps, jumps and timed event needs both a snowcat to push snow up the hill and it is measured out from the first row up, then it is shoveled in places and skiers smooth it out with their edges and turns, Preston said.

On Thursday there will be individual competition in which athletes will go through the course one at a time and Friday will be dual moguls which is essentially a side by side race but form counts more than the time it takes to finish, he noted.

A FIS aerial freestyle competition was held in Lake Placid on Sunday and while all that was about flips, this will be about bumps.

Preston said American women have been consistently dominating in this discipline and noted that among the contenders for the United States will be Jaelin Kauf https://www.fis-ski.com/freestyle/news/moguls-aerials-2024-25/kauf-caps-perfect-world-cup-season-with-hat-trick-of-titles, Tess Johnson https://www.vaildaily.com/news/world-cup-moguls-tess-johnson-team-usa-val-st-come/ and Olivia Giaccio https://www.teamusa.com/profiles/olivia-giaccio-861876 who originally skied at nearby Killington in Vermont.