Skiing in the last ten years has progressed incredibly fast, and today we are enjoying our sport at a level that skiing's forefathers couldn't have imagined. That level may be as high as it goes. Even now, pro skiers, snowboarders, and average skiers are getting injured all the time, and there's no sign of the injuries slowing down.
Our sport may have reached the apex of human capability. The standard of what a pro is expected to do today is insane, especially considering the park. Massive jumps and man eating rails are a must, and a pro can't get by with just hitting them; insane tricks are required of pros who want to stay at the forefront of skiing, and those tricks make what they are doing even more dangerous.
If skiing continues to evolve over the next decade as it did during this one, it will become fairly common for a professional skier to die in the line of work (hell, its not all that uncommon now, R.I.P. McConkey). The government will might have to step in and outlaw skiing competition to end the deaths, or pro skiers themselves will get so disillusioned with the danger of it that they choose to quit.
Once that happened, one of two things would happen. Over the period of time following the end of skiing competition, the average skier may finally get the time to catch up to the professional level of skiing. Once the pros are no longer competing and trying to progress, they will meld with the rest of the skiing population, who will rapidly close the gap between the former top pros and plain old really good skiers.
The other option for skiing is to go back to retro fads and slow style. Slow, styled out spins and mogul skiing could come back into vogue among younger skiers, and skiing will become a super mellow and stylish sport.
Now, I don't see this happening very soon, but if skiing continues to progress as fast as it has this past decade, something along those lines could come true, simply because the human body can't take that kind of strain.
