Team USA’s Ashton Salwan soars through the air during the men’s qualification round of the FIS Freestyle Aerials World Cup in Lake Placid in January. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

LAKE PLACID — Tickets are now on sale for the Lake Placid Freestyle Cup, the fourth stop on the Azerbaijan FIS Freestyle World Cup aerials tour that will take place here at the Olympic Jumping Complex on Jan. 11-12, 2026.

The event will be an opportunity for some of the world’s best aerialists to secure spots in the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games and offer fans a preview of what’s to come a few weeks later in Italy.

The two-day World Cup in Lake Placid features men’s and women’s individual competitions on Sunday from 8:45 a.m. to 4 p.m., followed by a mixed team event on Monday from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Freestyle aerials is known as one of the most electrifying spectator sports on snow, with athletes dropping in from a steep slope before launching high into the air off single, double or triple kicker jumps to execute twists, turns and flips before landing in an outrun area lined with cheering fans. Points are awarded for height, level of difficulty, technique and landing. Excitement builds as the field narrows throughout the day, leaving a final group of six athletes to battle for podium spots and coveted points in the overall World Cup standings.

The U.S. Freestyle Ski Team enters the 2025-2026 season riding high after a standout performance at last season’s FIS World Championships in Switzerland. Kaila Kuhn, a 2022 Olympian from Michigan, captured two world titles, winning the women’s individual event and then joining Quinn Dehlinger and Rochester native Chris Lillis to secure the mixed team gold, marking the first time any nation has claimed back-to-back world championships in the event. Dehlinger, from Ohio, also earned a silver medal in the men’s individual competition, finishing just behind Switzerland’s Noe Roth.

The Stifel Lake Placid Freestyle Cup is the only World Cup aerials stop of the season on the East Coast and the first U.S. stop of the 2025-26 Azerbaijan FIS Freestyle World Cup tour.

The 2025-26 Azerbaijan FIS Freestyle World Cup season opens in Ruka, Finland, before aerialists travel through Europe and Asia en route to North America. Lake Placid hosts the first U.S. stop, ahead of Deer Valley, Utah (Jan. 16-18), which serves as the final World Cup before athletes are named to the 2026 Olympic Team.

Freestyle Aerials has been a Winter Olympic discipline since the 1994 Lillehammer Games, captivating audiences with its high-flying flips and twists. Athletes are judged on air, form, and landing precision. Lake Placid’s Olympic Jumping Complex has hosted FIS Aerials World Cups and other major freestyle skiing events since the 1980s. During Lake Placid’s run of FIS Freestyle World Cups between 1985 and 2019, the aerials competition would take place at the Olympic Jumping Complex with the moguls at Whiteface Mountain on consecutive days.

For more information and to purchase tickets to the event, visit tinyurl.com/3upf597j.