Extreme snow sports

Think you’ve got what it takes to really shine on the slopes? Got the style, the moves and the sheer nerve to go head-to-head with some of the finest proponents of extreme skiing and snowboarding around? Then the Audi Nines could be just what you’re looking for. 

The Audi Nines was born out of the Nine Knights ski events, which have always brought together outstanding athletes to push boundaries and showcase their passion and dedication to achieving excellence.

The Nine Knights events continued to evolve throughout their history, launching the first all-female event, Nine Queens in 2011, and then expanding the format again in 2013 to include snowboarders, culminating in Nine Royals in 2017.

For 2018, two more major changes have taken part in the evolution, with the new Audi partnership and the merger of snow-cross and slopestyle athletes riding on the newly developed SlopeX course. 

This all-new competition format sees Olympic skiers and snowboarders rake on a specially designed course – the SlopeX course – showcasing their supreme aerial skills in the winter wonderland of the Tyrolean ski resort of Sölden.

The wild looking course was developed by the athletes themselves, and showcases both pure speed as well as aerial acrobatics and some sheer daring thrown in to make things really interesting.

But the Audi Nines presented by Falken, also gives bright up-and-comers a chance to show just what they’ve got, and gives them a chance to potentially launch their own careers by… well, launching themselves.
Held over five days, the athletes compete in seven categories – from SlopeX, Big Air and Quarter-Pipe to team events. 

Audi has been supporting youth-oriented and trend-setting sports for a number of years now, including the AUDI FIS Ski Cross World Cup and the Freeride World Tour.

“We are very keen to work with our partners to keep on developing the platforms and maintaining close contact with the athletes. We developed the Audi Nines especially for them in what was very much a collaborative effort,” said Thomas Glas, Head of Sport Marketing at AUDI AG. 

“The resulting creativity and sense of momentum is unique in winter sports.” 

Just looking at the course gives most mere mortals a reason to shake their heads. The prospect of hurtling into this collection of jumps, tabletops, loops, half pipes, rails and massive berms creating the perfect environment for these extraordinary athletes to demonstrate what seemed impossible.

One of the standout features of this year’s event was undoubtably the unique loop, which challenged the athletes and provided an extraordinary spectacle for those watching the event. For those at the cutting edge of extreme skiing, ‘the loop’ provided the opportunity for several ‘firsts’. Swedish skier, Jesper Tjäder, pulled off the first ever switch loop on skis, while Gigi Rüf completed possibly the first ever carved snowboard loop.

A resounding success for all who took part and a particularly hard fought victory for the category winners, the Audi Nines will be back in 2019 and the bar will be raised even higher again.