32 The Tour de Ski has been organised since the 2006/2007 season, and it is held every year in Central Europe. It s a multi-stage race where skiers compete in various disciplines over several days. The Four Hills Tournament is considered the most important event of this discipline on the FIS World Cup calendar. Search the Internet to find some information about how it is structured. Since 1997, the Snowboarding World Championships have been held every odd year. ONLINE RESOURCES Freeride skiing NORDIC DISCIPLINES, FREESTYLE, AND SNOWBOARDING The FIS is also responsible for setting rules and organising events in Nordic disciplines, such as the Nordic skiing World Championships held every year, as well as in freestyle skiing and snowboarding. Nordic disciplines While alpine skiing is done on slopes, Nordic disciplines are performed both on slopes and on flat courses. Cross-country skiing is included in the Nordic skiing World Championships, and a Cross-Country World Cup is also organised every year, together with the prestigious Tour de Ski event . There are two techniques in cross-country skiing: when skiing with the classic technique, athletes stride forward on skis, with the skating technique they make a skating motion. The competitions range from 1-2-kilometre to 50-kilometre events. In ski jumping, the athletes go down a jumping ramp to a take-off table from where they jump and fly as far as possible over a landing hill. Each jump is evaluated by judges according to the distance travelled and the style performed. In team events, each team has four members and the number of teams is reduced to eight after the first jump . In the nordic combined athletes compete in both cross-country skiing and ski jumping. Traditionally, the athletes complete the ski jumping portion first and then start the crosscountry race. Nordic combined competitions have been part of the Winter Olympics since their first edition in 1924, while the FIS World Cup has been held since 1983. 62 TO GO Freestyle skiing Freestyle skiing is a discipline that includes several acrobatic specialities. It developed in the 1960s and was included in the Winter Olympic Games in 1992. The main specialities of freestyle skiing are: Moguls, which involve riding down a course with bumps; Aerials, which are the execution of acrobatic jumps with skis; Ski cross, a race in which four skiers compete simultaneously on a course with obstacles; Halfpipe, the execution of evolutions inside a half-pipe-shaped structure; Slopestyle, in which athletes have to race on a course with artificial structures to be overcome; Big air, which is a single jump from a trampoline. Snowboarding The FIS Snowboarding World Championships are the world competitions organised for snowboarding since 1996 . The championships include events in the same specialities of alpine and freestyle skiing performed on snowboard. aerial: salto bump: dosso mogul: gobba to stride: avanzare