'Hot dog' skiers let it all hang out
It's 1973 and there's a hip new craze hitting the ski slopes. Called "hot dog"
or freestyle skiing, it emphasizes "technique and high-spirited imagination
rather than sheer speed," according to this CBC-TV report. "We just go down the
hill as fast and as crazy as we can," explains Wayne Wong, one of the new
sport's biggest stars. And Doug Pfeiffer, editor of Skiing Magazine, uses
popular 1970s lingo to sum up the sport: "It's epitomized by the phrase, 'Get it
on! Let it all hang out!'"
• Freestyle skiing emerged as a popular sport in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
It was better known as "hot dog" skiing at that time.
• A 2008 article in the Rocky Mountain News described the early version of
freestyle skiing as "a free-form sport with few rules. Freestyle was about
skiing outside the box, making your own way, drawing your own lines in the snow.
Each competition was broken down into three events -- ballet, moguls and aerials
-- yet you never knew what to expect. And the accompanying scene was not to be
missed: The setting was raucous, the music loud, the crowd rowdy ...
Individuality was emphasized, and creativity reigned."
• The same article went on to lament the way the free-wheeling sport has
evolved into a more organized discipline. The 1970s hot-dogging star Wayne Wong
was interviewed for the 2008 article, and he said, "Back then it was all
natural, and everything was new. We were limited pretty much to bumps and a
steep run, so we had to be creative in a different way. As the sport evolved to
be more disciplined, it lost its 'free' and became more stale."
• As the sport developed into a more organized activity, freestyle skiing
became an Olympic event. Moguls and aerials first appeared as demonstration
sports at the Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988. Moguls were made a medal sport
in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, while aerials were made an official event two years later at the Games in Lillehammer, Norway. A new
freestyle category called ski cross became an Olympic event for the 2010 Winter
Games in Vancouver.
• The "ballet" portion of freestyle, which figures prominently in this
report, is no longer officially a part of the sport. It was a demonstration
sport in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics, but it is not part of the Games
anymore.
Medium: Television
Program: Weekend
Broadcast Date: March 25, 1973
Guest(s): Doug Pfeiffer, Wayne Wong
Reporter: Don Cumming
Duration: 8:31
Program: Weekend
Broadcast Date: March 25, 1973
Guest(s): Doug Pfeiffer, Wayne Wong
Reporter: Don Cumming
Duration: 8:31
Last updated: February 17, 2015
Page consulted on February 17, 2015
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