USA freeski sensation Alex Hall puts the style in slopestyle

You hear a lot about style in freeski circles. It’s the word on everyone’s lips.

But when Alex Hall takes to the course, you see it.

“A slopestyle run is like a blank canvas,” the long and lean (193cm) American skier, who seems to tiptoe through the rail sections and soar above the jumps, told Olympics.com in November. “Creativity is huge. You have to be good at rails and jumps and put together a full run with everything.

“The exact way you want to put it all together is part of the whole thing and it’s up to you,” added the 23-year-old who's among the favourites to finish on the podium in the slopestyle event here in Beijing. “You make your own run; it’s a whole canvas for you to work on.”

Hall also competes in big air freeski events, consisting of a single huge launch ramp that calls to mind the human cannonball circus acts of old -- but it’s the slopestyle discipline that’s his specialty.

And it’s there, on the rails and over the jumps – through all the subtle connections in between – that Hall finds the free-form potentialities that first drew him to freeski.

There’s no more stylish skier on the tour – or anywhere, perhaps at any time – than Hall. Through the rail sections, near the top of all slopestyle courses, of which no two are alike, he fairly glides. He’s more ballet dancer than skier there.

Despite his towering height, there’s no whiff of clumsiness. Skiing forward or backward (switch), he exhibits a rare kind of elegance and never, ever, looks like he’s fighting the tricks or the apparatus or the course itself.

“You create your own run,” he said of the total freedom involved in his sport. “Just landing a run, or a big air trick, there’s a personal satisfaction to that. A podium is the cherry on top but