The World’s Best Freestyle Skier
On March 11, 2016, Devin Logan became the first halfpipe and slopestyle skier ever to win one of the FIS World Cup’s biggest trophies: the Freeskiing World Cup.
“Did you know I’m afraid of heights?” said Devin Logan in an interview with Vermont Ski + Ride at the Aspen X Games in February, 2016. “Like I hate even looking down from the gondola sometimes. But when I’m in the halfpipe and I’m in control, it’s different. I just don’t get scared.”
The 23-year-old freeskier from Dover, Vt. makes her living launching enormous airs off 22-foot high halfpipe walls. Earlier in the season she had dislocated her shoulder training for the Dew Tour and in Aspen had just come off what she called “a couple of good crashes” during a training run. She turned in a lukewarm performance at the X Games and, later failed to podium at Boston’s Fenway Big Air.
But that didn’t stop her. Instead, Logan doubled down in the two disciplines she competes in: halfpipe and slopestyle, turning in consistently good performances on the FIS World Cup events around the globe.
And last week, her hard work was rewarded: On March 11, D Lo, as friends call her, made history as the first freeskier to win the overall FIS giant crystal globe. Not just the first woman — the first freeskier — to take home the biggest trophy in World Cup skiing: the one that rewards all-around performance in multiple disciplines during the 34-stop FIS World Cup Freestyle Skiing tour.
Logan is the first to take home this trophy for overall freestyle performance in multiple disciplines without competing in moguls, aerials or ski cross competitions.
She came into the final event in Tignes, France ranked seventh in the world in slopestyle and second in halfpipe, just 20 points behind the leader. Her closest challenger for the overall Freestyle Skiing World Cup crystal globe was ski cross athlete Anna Holmlund of Sweden, who was just one point back. To beat her, Logan only needed to complete a training run in Tignes. She did, and the trophy was hers.
Often, as was true at the X Games, competing in slopestyle and halfpipe meant two major competitions in one day. “Being the only female to compete in both slopestyle and halfpipe gets pretty rough during the season going back and forth between competitions,” she said. “But, again, I’ve been doing it for so long that I couldn’t picture doing anything else.
Logan started skiing when she was 2 years old and grew up chasing her brothers, ski filmmakers Chris and Sean Logan, around Mount Snow. “They were always super supportive of me, encouraging me to do whatever they did – whether it was playing football or park skiing,” Logan says.
“When I was six, I wanted to be a ski racer but they talked me out of it and I just kept following them into moguls and doing airs.” At 15, she was second in the U.S. Halfpipe championships. In 2011, at 17, she won the overall AFP (Association of Freeskiing Professionals) halfpipe title, and did so again the following year, also winning two X Games medals. Then, in 2012 in New Zealand, she blew out her knee.
Rather than sitting home and just doing rehab, Logan got certified that year to be an AFP and FIS judge, giving her a greater insight into how to excel in competitions. She came back the following year stronger than ever, winning silver at the Sochi Olympics and again winning the AFP tour. {Read our 2014 interview with Logan}
Logan credits some of her success to growing up skiing in Vermont. “It makes you tough to ski in Vermont,” she said quietly, sitting in the lobby of the Limelight hotel in Aspen. “Growing up in those conditions where it’s almost always cold and icy you have to have a lot of passion. I think it makes me like a challenge: Like, I like to take a different line than everyone else, try something new.” She pauses and then add “And hey, if I don’t do well, at least I had fun trying.”
