The IFSA was founded on the premise of serving athletes first, supplying them with the resources they need to reach the highest level of competition. Ensuring safe and inspiring environments for athletes of all ages and backgrounds makes the IFSA the life of freeride.
The IFSA runs competitions with divisions as young as U12 all the way up to collegiate and adult comps. Inspiring competition and ski progression for all ages has pushed the sport of freeride beyond what anyone could have imagined; especially with its possibility of becoming an Olympic sport.
Adult athletes compete in IFSA events with hopes of qualifying for Challengers events. From there they have their shot at making it on the Freeride World Tour and competing on the global stage.
They earn points at each event from 1* through 4* (increasing points from each). At this point in the season, after two 4* competitions the leaderboard is starting to take shape as Qualifier athletes attempt to make their shot at Challengers.
The top women are skiers Harriet Lucas (Great Britain), Kayla Constantini (Canada), Ione Gangoiti Perez (Spain) and snowboarders Kaiya Hanepen (USA), Jaimie Figueira (Canada), and Emma Hall (USA). These women have had standout performances in the 2026 season so far.
On the men’s side of things skiers Sam Westgate (Great Britain), Asher Maxwell (USA), and Paul Melchert (USA) are leading the path alongside snowboarders Johnny Duty (USA), Nicholas Carroll (USA), and Vaughn Hardwick (Australia).
These athletes are leading the charge as they chase after Challenger qualifications. Coming up this week is the third IFSA 4* in Snowbird, Utah. Keep an eye on rankings as one good comp score can be all the difference.
Running alongside these rankings are the Collegiate Freeride Series (CFS) rankings. All athletes in college are welcome to compete under their schools name and in CFS comps. As it stands now the top colleges in the 2026 season are Montana State University (first), University of Utah (second), and Colorado Boulder (third).
The rankings are determined by the scores of each school’s top five athletes ranking points. Montana State is having a stand out performance this year, lets hope they can keep it up this week in Snowbird. After this comp individual and collegiate rankings could look quite different. Follow along with the IFSA the see how things shake out.