World championships for moguls and aerials skiing have been relocated to Almaty, Kazakhstan, from March 8-11.
The disciplines are usually part of a broader, biennial world freestyle skiing and snowboarding championships, but this year’s championships in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic venue of Zhangjiakou, China, were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Almaty was the only other final bidder for the 2022 Olympics, awarded to Beijing in 2015.
Events in ski cross and snowboard cross were previously rescheduled for Idre Fjäll, Sweden, from Feb. 11-13.
The remaining events — ski and snowboard big air, halfpipe and slopestyle and Alpine snowboarding — have yet to be rescheduled.
Moguls boasts two of the world’s dominant athletes — Canadian Mikaël Kingsbury (coming back from injury) and Frenchwoman Perrine Laffont, the 2018 Olympic champions.
The U.S. is stronger in aerials. Four different U.S. women have made the podium among four World Cups so far this season, including first-time winners Megan Nick and Winter Vinecki.
Russian Maksim Burov has won all four men’s aerials World Cups this season and won the last world championships title in 2019. American Chris Lillis finished second at the most recent World Cup last Saturday.
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