What skiing and snowboarding are, discipline by discipline.

Two ways of travelling over snow

Britannica's articles on skiing and snowboarding refused our requests, so the descriptions in this paragraph rest only on the summaries shown in search results and should be read as unconfirmed. In those summaries, Britannica describes skiing as a recreation, a sport and a means of travel over snow on a pair of long, flat runners attached to boots, and splits competitive skiing into alpine, Nordic and freestyle events. It describes snowboarding as drawing on skiing, surfing and skateboarding, with the rider standing sideways on a single board, and places its emergence in the 1960s and 1970s.

Snowboarding's arrival at the Olympics is better documented. The Canadian Encyclopedia says it made its Olympic debut at Nagano in 1998 with giant slalom and halfpipe events. How the board itself came about is in the history section.

How FIS divides the sport

The International Ski and Snowboard Federation, abbreviated FIS, calls itself the sole and exclusive world governing body for the disciplines it lists (FIS Statutes, Edition 2026, art. 2). Article 2.2 of the 2026 Statutes names ten snowsport disciplines recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), each with a code. Article 2.3 names three Para snowsport disciplines that FIS governs and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) recognises. The table adds how many medal events each had at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, as FIS counted them.

FIS's About page, read in October 2026, groups the same ground slightly differently: alpine, cross-country, ski jumping, Nordic combined, freestyle skiing and snowboard as the Olympic disciplines, and Para alpine, Para cross-country and Para snowboard as the Paralympic ones. The same page says FIS sets the international competition rules and is recognised by both the IOC and the IPC. FIS counted 57 ski and snowboard medal events at the 2026 Olympics, and said its three Para disciplines held about 80% of all medals at the 2026 Paralympics.

Freestyle and freeski are two codes

The Statutes list "Freestyle and Freeski" together but give them two codes. FIS's joint rulebook for these sports, International Competition Rules (ICR) Book VI, Edition June 2026, lists the freestyle events in article 2029.1 (aerials, aerials team, aerials synchro, dual moguls, dual moguls team, moguls, ski cross and ski cross team) and the freeski events in article 2029.2 (halfpipe, slopestyle, big air and street style). The FIS World Cup Rules for 2025/26 award a separate "Freeski Park & Pipe Overall" globe for big air, halfpipe and slopestyle (art. 1.5.2.1). The freestyle and freeski page explains each event.

The word "Nordic"

FIS's About page lists one Nordic World Ski Championships among the championships it holds, but that page does not say which disciplines the word covers. This site therefore names the discipline every time rather than relying on the label. Cross-country, ski jumping and Nordic combined each have their own FIS rulebook, and they are treated separately here.

Disciplines with their own World Championships but no Olympic place

FIS says it holds nine World Championships every two years: alpine, Nordic, freestyle skiing and snowboard, Para alpine, Para cross-country, Para snowboard, telemark, grass skiing and speed skiing (About FIS, undated). An older, undated FIS factsheet gives three championships every two years instead, so the count depends on which FIS page is read. Speed skiing and grass skiing are named in the Statutes but were not researched further for this site.

Snow sports run by other bodies

Two sports often grouped with skiing are absent from the FIS list in article 2.2 of the Statutes 2026. Biathlon, whose races combine skiing loops with shooting stages, is governed by the International Biathlon Union (IBU): see biathlon. Ski mountaineering is governed by the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF), and NBC Olympics reports that it made its Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026 with three events at Bormio: see ski mountaineering and telemark.

Freeride is also in the FIS list (code FR). The Sports Examiner, in a report dated 7 July 2026 relaying the IOC Executive Board's 2030 programme decision, says that freeride joins the Olympic programme in 2030 with women's and men's ski and snowboard events. The IOC's own release could not be opened for this site, so the detail is given as reported. FIS also publishes a document titled "ICR adaptations FIS Freeride", which was not read.

Racing and recreation

Most of this section is about competition, because that is where the rulebooks are. The recreational side has its own documents: the FIS Code of Conduct for Skiers and Snowboarders and the US National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) Your Responsibility Code, both on the codes of conduct; trail-sign rules, which differ by country and in the US by state law, on trail difficulty markings; and the instructor bodies on how people learn.

Risk, in the bodies' own words

The NSAA's code page states that winter sports carry a risk of serious injury or death, and that a person's knowledge, decisions and actions affect their own safety and that of others. FIS's 2016 general comments on its rules for conduct say that skiing and snowboarding, like all sports, entail risks. What injury researchers, coroners and avalanche centres publish is in the safety section.