Eleonora Ferrari

Profile and significance

Eleonora Ferrari is a French freestyle skier from Chamrousse whose career bridges national-level competition, creative park and street skiing, and outspoken climate activism. Born in 1997 and raised in the mountains above Grenoble, she learned to ski in the local ski club before turning from classic alpine gates to freestyle in 2015. That switch unlocked a new trajectory: within a few seasons she was scoring top-five results in French and European slopestyle events and, in 2019, taking silver at the French Big Air Championships to become vice-champion of France. For a rider who grew up lapping a small Isère resort, those results placed her firmly among the core of the French park scene.

Ferrari’s significance today, though, goes beyond contest rankings. After several intense seasons chasing points, she deliberately stepped back from the full-time competitive grind to focus on filming, street sessions and a more personal, values-driven approach to skiing. She has become an ambassador for her home resort of Chamrousse, joined the Riders Alliance of Protect Our Winters France, and signed with K2 Skis, which now presents her as part of its international freestyle team. In that role she represents a growing group of athletes who have proved themselves in competition and then chosen to channel their energy into projects, places and causes that matter to them.

Competitive arc and key venues

Ferrari’s competitive arc is rooted in the French federation system. Licensed with the Fédération Française de Ski, she moved through the national freestyle pathway, trading alpine bibs for slopestyle and big air start lists in her late teens. By the late 2010s she was a regular presence at French Cup and European Cup events, stacking enough consistent runs to place fifth in both French and European slopestyle competitions and, in 2019, to climb onto the national big air podium with a silver medal at Les Arcs. Those results came against a strong generation of French women who were already making their mark on World Cups and X Games, which underscores the level she had reached.

In parallel with national events, Ferrari used classic European venues as stepping stones. La Clusaz, Les Arcs and other big French parks provided the contest environments where she tried to prove she belonged on the international circuit, a pressure-cooker period captured in interviews and podcasts that followed her through a difficult 2019–2020 season. More recently, her name has appeared in the freeride ecosystem as a Ski Women competitor on the Freeride World Tour Qualifier pathway, indicating a deliberate move toward bigger, more natural faces while still drawing on the air awareness she built in slopestyle and big air. Taken together, her competition story is less about chasing a single title and more about using contests as a launchpad toward a broader ski life.

How they ski: what to watch for

Ferrari describes herself first as a “jibber,” and that label is a useful lens for viewing her skiing. Coming from a resort whose snowpark is known more for rails, hips and creative features than for giant booters, she built her style around precision on metal and playful use of transitions. On park laps she tends to link multiple small and medium features into smooth lines rather than hunting only for the biggest possible jump; it is a way of skiing that rewards reading the park like a puzzle, using side hits, knuckles and rail options to keep a run flowing from top to bottom.

In big air and slopestyle competition, that jibber’s eye translated into solid, well-structured runs. While the record books remember the results, what stands out in footage and photos is her balance: centered stance, calm upper body and landings that aim for clean speed out of the impact rather than barely-survived stomps. As she has shifted toward street sessions and more freeride-oriented days, those same traits remain visible. Whether she is hitting a handrail, a park hip or a natural wind lip, the through-line is a focus on control and creativity rather than simply ticking off the highest-rotation trick available.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Resilience has been a quiet constant in Ferrari’s story. The transition from promising national-team athlete to someone questioning her place on the circuit was not straightforward. She has spoken about seasons where results did not match the work she was putting in, where bad weather and bad luck at key contests compounded the pressure to deliver. Instead of walking away from skiing entirely, she used that frustration to reassess what she wanted her career to look like, eventually choosing to step back from full-time competition and invest more energy in filming, local projects and environmental action.

That shift has broadened her influence. As a member of the Protect Our Winters France Riders Alliance, she speaks openly about the contradictions of being a professional skier in a warming climate: training on glaciers while watching them shrink, traveling for competitions while advocating for lower-impact lifestyles. Her message is not about perfection but about engagement—accepting that no one has a zero-impact life, yet still taking concrete steps to reduce emissions and use one’s platform constructively. Brand features and resort profiles now present her not just as a freestyle specialist, but as an athlete who brings climate literacy and honesty into a scene that is increasingly forced to confront its own footprint.

Geography that built the toolkit

Ferrari’s skiing is inseparable from Chamrousse and the surrounding French Alps. Growing up in a small resort above Grenoble meant that skiing was both everyday life and a window onto the wider world. The local ski club gave her classic alpine fundamentals; the Super Snowpark, with its mix of small kickers, rails and hips, gave her the platform to reinvent herself as a freestyler. Long winters of lap-after-lap riding in that environment helped her build edge control, pop and comfort in variable conditions, all of which later proved crucial in contests and freeride entries.

As her career developed, her geographic circle expanded. Training and competing across France and the Alps took her to major parks and venues, from Les Arcs and La Clusaz to European Cup stops farther afield, each adding new jump shapes, rail designs and snow conditions to her experience. Off-season camps on alpine glaciers taught her how to keep skills sharp when most people have already put their skis away. More recently, time spent on freeride faces and backcountry approaches, along with van missions and surf trips along the western coast of France, have rounded out her relationship with the mountains and the natural world that underpins her skiing.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Ferrari’s equipment story is anchored by her partnership with K2 Skis. As part of the brand’s freestyle roster, she rides twin-tip models designed to handle both park abuse and more all-mountain use, reflecting her evolution from contest-focused slopestyle and big air toward street, resort jibbing and freeride. For a skier who defines herself as a jibber, that means prioritising skis with a balanced flex pattern and durable construction—something that pops reliably off small features and holds up on metal, but still feels trustworthy on chopped landings and variable snow.

Beyond skis, her affiliations with Chamrousse and Protect Our Winters France highlight a different side of “equipment”: the communities and institutions that support a sustainable ski life. Chamrousse gives her a physical playground and local anchor; POW gives her a framework and network for environmental action. For progressing skiers, the takeaway is that gear choices matter, but so do the relationships you build—finding a ski that matches your style, a home mountain that lets you ride often, and partners whose values align with your own.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Eleonora Ferrari because she embodies a modern, multifaceted version of what a freestyle career can be. She has proven herself in national-level competition, taken a deliberate step toward film, street and freeride projects, and used her platform to talk honestly about climate and the future of winter. She comes from a relatable background—a small French resort, a ski-club upbringing, a gradual shift from alpine to freestyle—and has turned that into a life that balances performance, creativity and responsibility.

For progressing skiers, especially those growing up in smaller resorts or feeling the weight of expectations around results, her path offers a reassuring model. You can start in gates and end up on rails, climb onto national podiums and still decide that success means more than rankings, and care deeply about the mountains even while using them as your workplace. Watching how Ferrari has navigated competition pressures, redefined her goals and integrated environmental engagement into her career can help riders think not just about which tricks they want to learn, but about what kind of relationship they want with skiing and the mountains over the long term.