Skier of the Year is a pretty illustrious title, and this year there were a LOT of solid candidates. It feels like skiing's women are progressing at a faster rate than ever before, and each year sees huge leaps forward, far more so than on the men's side. In 2018, at the Olympics, doubles were a rarity, in early 2023, Megan Oldham put down the first comp triple. On the film side, things are exploding too, we're seeing bigger street spots, better-produced movies, and more crews getting after it. See Bucket Clips 2.0 vs the first edition for reference.

When it came to discussing Skier Of The Year, we had a difficult decision to make. Megan Oldham set the bar incredibly high in comps, cleaning up contests left and right... and stomping that game-changing triple. We had to include her in the nominees, even though comps aren't particularly heavily weighted in our thinking, but ultimately with the progression in the film game, we decided that was as far as it went. Lisa Zimmerman is quietly raising the bar for rail game, dropping insane technical combos out of nowhere and stomping with authority. She crushed Dew Tour Streetstyle too, and did it all in a bike helmet (we don't know why either). Keep your eyes out for her NS Originals dropping later in the season. Maggie Voisin filmed a banger of a part for Crescendo, raising the bar on BC jumps. Taylor Lundquist brought a whole crew to Japan, made a movie and claimed the best tricks in it, stacking shots for our Movie of the Year, Daycare, too. But our panel was pretty unanimous on this one...

The 2023 Female Skier Of The Year... Anni Karava. For the past couple of seasons, she's been raising the bar in the streets with her shots in Forre's movies and this year it was another step up. The backflip mute was iconic, the huge street DFD that was her ender, insane. And she does it all with immaculate style, maybe flying slightly under the radar despite it all. We can't think of a more deserving winner. Anni, congratulations, keep killing it.

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1085636/SOTY-F-WINNER-16X9-v2-mp4