The 2026 Winter Olympics kick off in Milan Cortina in less than a month, and if you’re expecting snowboarding’s judging controversies to have been resolved since Beijing 2022, I’ve got some disappointing news for you. We’re about to watch this broken system play out on the world’s biggest stage, and the riders who’ve dedicated their lives to progression deserve better. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Olympic snowboarding has been fundamentally flawed since day one, and the people running the show either can’t fix it or don’t want to. The International Ski Federation (FIS) has been snowboarding’s reluctant guardian for nearly three decades, and their track record speaks for itself. Missed grabs scored as perfect executions. History-making runs underscored by points that would be laughable if the stakes weren’t so high. Athletes forced to land the best run in halfpipe history twice just to get the score they deserved the first time. And yet, here we are again. Milano Cortina 2026 is three weeks away, and the core problems haven’t changed. The Same Script, Different OlympicsIf you watched the Beijing 2022 Olympics, you witnessed what might be the most egregious judging failure in snowboarding history. Max Parrot won slopestyle gold with a run that included a glaring mistake: he grabbed his knee instead of his board on his final triple cork 1620. The judges didn’t catch it. Head judge Iztok Sumatic later admitted the panel made a mistake, blaming inadequate camera angles and the pressure to score quickly for live television. But here’s the thing: Sumatic is a good dude who genuinely cares about snowboarding. The issue isn’t individual judges making honest mistakes under pressure. It’s a framework that sets them up to fail. Four years later, identical infrastructure issues persist. Judges still work under intense time constraints. Camera coverage is still dictated by broadcast requirements rather than judging needs. And FIS, the governing body that’s supposed to advocate for snowboarding, continues to prioritize Olympic tradition and television schedules over getting it right. Meanwhile, Ayumu Hirano had to land the greatest halfpipe run in history twice because the judges underscored his second run by over four points. Think about that. An athlete risking catastrophic injury had to repeat a historic performance because six professionals couldn’t get the numbers correct the first time. That’s not sport. That’s absurdity. Mark McMorris, who’s lived through multiple Olympic judging controversies, put it bluntly in Beijing: “FIS doesn’t take care of us as much as they maybe should. They’re not caring about the snowboarding.” He’s correct. And nothing meaningful has changed since he said it.
The Chloe Kim Situation: A Microcosm of Everything WrongTwo weeks ago, Chloe Kim tore her labrum during a training run in Switzerland. She won’t be able to snowboard again until right before the Olympics begin on February 6. Kim, who’s chasing history as the first woman to win three consecutive halfpipe golds, now faces the prospect of showing up to the biggest contest of her life without adequate preparation. This isn’t bad luck. This is what happens when the Olympic qualification structure forces elite athletes to compete in a grueling circuit of World Cup events, X Games, and training camps, all while managing injury risk and trying to peak at exactly the right moment. Kim already pulled out of the U.S. Grand Prix in December with a shoulder injury. Now she’s racing against the clock to recover from a torn labrum. The woman has won eight X Games golds and two Olympic golds. She’s proven everything there is to prove. And yet she’s required to keep grinding through qualifiers and tune-up events that add risk without adding value to her preparation. It’s broken, and everyone knows it. Kim will likely still be the favorite if she makes it to the start gate healthy. But she shouldn’t have to navigate this obstacle course to defend a title she’s already earned twice. FIS: The Wrong Organization Running Our SportHere’s a fact that should make every snowboarder uncomfortable: the organization running Olympic snowboarding is the International Ski Federation. Not a snowboard organization. Not a body created by snowboarders for snowboarders. A skiing federation that was handed control of our sport when the IOC decided to include snowboarding in the Olympics back in the ‘90s. The cultural disconnect is real and it matters. FIS operates with a skiing mentality applied to a snowboarding context. They prioritize things that work for skiing but make zero sense for snowboarding. They answer to the IOC first and the snowboard community second. And when push comes to shove, broadcast television requirements and Olympic tradition win every single time. Mark McMorris nailed it when he said judges are “doing this almost as a hobby” because they’re not compensated adequately for the pressure and responsibility of Olympic-level judging. How can we expect professional-caliber judging when we’re not providing professional-caliber support, training, and compensation for the judges? The answer is simple: we can’t. But FIS has shown no meaningful interest in fixing this. An entire Olympic cycle has passed, and identical systemic issues remain.
The Natural Selection AlternativeThe timing of Travis Rice’s Natural Selection tour makes the Olympic situation even more frustrating. Here’s a contest format that works: natural terrain, rider-focused judging, production values that enhance rather than compromise the competition, and an emphasis on the kind of snowboarding that actually matters to the community. Natural Selection isn’t perfect, but it represents what snowboarding contests can be when snowboarders are running the show. Riders want to compete in it. The judging makes sense. The terrain showcases skills that translate to real-world snowboarding. And there’s genuine excitement around the events because they feel authentic to what our culture is about. The Olympics should be learning from Natural Selection. Instead, we’re stuck with a format that’s more about television spectacle than authentic riding. FIS could implement better camera systems for judges. They could adjust time constraints to allow for more accurate scoring. They could compensate judges professionally and provide better training. They could listen to the athletes who are putting their bodies on the line. But they haven’t, and there’s no indication they will. The Women’s Snowboarding ParadoxHere’s where this gets complicated: for all its flaws, Olympic snowboarding matters more to women’s progression than anyone wants to admit. Research by Darrah Reid-McLean found that less than one percent of video parts in major snowboard films featured women. Meanwhile, at the Olympics, exactly 50 percent of the spots go to women. The Olympics provide a platform, funding structure, and career pathway for female snowboarders that simply doesn’t exist to the same degree in video-based snowboarding. Events like the Uninvited Invitational and women’s divisions at Natural Selection are closing this gap, but the Olympics remain the most reliable platform for female riders to build careers and gain recognition. So while men’s snowboarding might not need the Games, women’s snowboarding absolutely does, at least for now. That’s frustrating because it means we can’t write off this platform entirely, even when it repeatedly fails our riders. The solution isn’t boycotting the Games. The solution is demanding they serve the athletes and culture rather than using us for television ratings.
What Needs to Change (But Probably Won’t)The fixes aren’t complicated. They require FIS and the IOC to care about getting it right: Give judges access to multiple camera angles and slow-motion replay. The technology exists. Use it. Eliminate time pressure to score quickly for television broadcasts. Accuracy matters more than speed. Compensate judges professionally and provide ongoing training and accountability. Include rider representatives in decisions about contest format, judging criteria, and rule changes. Design qualification systems that don’t force elite athletes to risk injury in meaningless tune-up events. Prioritize rider safety and fair competition over television schedules and traditional Olympic protocols. These changes would dramatically improve Olympic snowboarding. They would reduce controversies, increase fairness, and create contests that better represent what we’re about. None of them are technically difficult. They require FIS to prioritize snowboarding over their other interests. And that’s precisely why they won’t happen. The Last WordI want to be excited about Milano Cortina 2026. I want to watch Chloe Kim chase history and see the next generation of riders push progression on the world’s biggest stage. I want Olympic snowboarding to be a genuine celebration of our culture. But I also know what we’re walking into. Flawed judging infrastructure. FIS leadership that treats snowboarding as an afterthought. A disconnect between what the Olympics pretend to be and what they deliver. Riders will put down incredible performances. New heroes will emerge. Progression will happen despite the system, not because of it. And when the judging controversies inevitably surface, we’ll have identical conversations we’ve had after every Games since snowboarding was included. Our culture built this from nothing and deserves contests that reflect those values rather than compromise them for television ratings. The athletes risking everything on that halfpipe wall or launching off those jumps require infrastructure that works. Until FIS and the IOC fix the fundamental issues with Olympic snowboarding, we’re not watching the sport’s pinnacle. We’re watching a flawed approximation, dressed up with pageantry and broadcast production. The riders will show up and throw down anyway, because that’s what they do. But three decades into Olympic snowboarding, we shouldn’t still be having these conversations about these issues. The fact that we are tells you everything you need to know about who’s really running this show. Spoiler alert: it’s not the snowboarders.
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Rabu, 14 Januari 2026
The Olympic Illusion
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