Snowboard Alpine stars align to throw weight behind #keepPGSolympic campaign

Thanks to a social media campaign that has drawn support from over 70 FIS Snowboard Alpine World Cup athletes and a host of children’s clubs, Parallel Giant Slalom’s status as a Winter Olympic event has received resounding backing from the sport’s community as Milano Cortina 2026 gets underway.

By throwing their weight behind the hashtag #keepPGSolympic and to celebrate the beauty of Snowboard Alpine, athletes and fans were asked to share videos of why they love Alpine Snowboarding, with footage flooding in from across the globe – including the USA, China, Czechia, Canada, Germany, Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Poland, Korea and Japan, to name just a few.

Among the stellar names to contribute were two-time Olympic champion Ester Ledecká (CZE), who voiced her support for “an amazing sport that definitely deserves to be part of the Olympics”, Italian icon Roland Fischnaller, a current medal contender and whose own children take part and “dream of going the Olympics one day”, and Radoslav Yankov (BUL), who would love to see “the Bulgarian kids I’ve inspired be able to dream of and experience the emotions of an Olympics”.

With the campaign having already reached over a million users and rising fast, momentum is on the side of a discipline whose credentials as a gender-equal, safe and sustainable snow sport were recently underlined by Uwe Beier, Race Director for the Snowboard Alpine discipline.

“We don’t necessarily need a long course or super-challenging terrain because in Snowboard Alpine parallel competitions the main challenge is strategic, while overall we have a very low injury rate,” explained Beier, in conversation with fis-ski.com.

“We also don’t need much snow. We just need a decent layer, which you need for public slopes in any case. With a little bit of forward planning and professional preparation, you're ready to race,” he continued, before touching on the sport’s merits for younger participants.

“It’s easy to access the sport for youngsters as you just need a hill and some snow, and a little bit of equipment. It’s not too risky, so parents can easily get behind their youngsters’ initial forays into the sport, and it’s simple to understand – a direct head-to-head format with two athletes against each other.”

Indeed, there are few better illustrations of the spectacle involved in Parallel Giant Slalom than in the men’s final at the Snowboard Alpine World Cup in Rogla (SLO) on 31 January, with Sangho Lee (KOR) edging out Fischnaller by no more than a fingertip!

Follow @fissnowboardingracing to keep on top of all the Snowboard Alpine action in Milano-Cortina (ITA), with the Parallel Giant Slalom racing taking place on 8 February.