Big air and freestyle competitions in both open skiing and snowboarding divisions will be held from March 24 to 27.

There is a minimum entry of 20 competitors per class and the IKA has stated that they can cancel an event 14 days before registration if there are not enough athletes signed up.

The past two editions of the Cortina Snowkite Contest have been cancelled due to COVID-19 but as global travel restrictions ease, organisers are confident of hosting the seventh version of the Passo Giau competition.

The Italian National Champions will also be crowned at the event but will not have separate races.

Competitors will be judged on the technical difficulty, power, height, variety, risk factor, smoothness, and innovation of their tricks and routines.

Judges will then give them a total score which is the sum of their best individual trick scores on a kicker and a slider, and then their best air-trick score.

As Cortina d'Ampezzo is hosting the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, the event presents the perfect opportunity for SnowKite to demonstrate why it deserves future inclusion.

Like many other International Federations around the world, the IKA has banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing at its events and will therefore miss out on the action in Italy.

Ukraine's Dmytro Yasnoloblov is dominating the competition so far in the World Cup as he has secured a gold medal in each of the previous two stops.

However, course racing and long-distance made up the programme in Kharkiv and Roccaraso so a new champion is likely to be crowned in Cortina d'Ampezzo.