Robert Andre Ruud

Norway | Born: 1995 | Known for: 2014 Junior World slopestyle bronze, POSIVA, Silver Belt 2025 and Scandinavian Team Battle | Discipline: slopestyle, big air, freeride and creative freestyle skiing

Copenhagen’s Green Roof and Norway’s First Team Battle Win

On 13 June 2026, changing weather moved over Copenhagen while Robert André Ruud and Mikkel Brusletto Kaupang prepared to drop into the Scandinavian Team Battle at CopenHill. The slope was green Neveplast rather than snow, with a short run-in, compact features and a crowd able to see every turn from the roof of the city’s waste-to-energy plant. Norway’s pair used the format as it was intended: two riders linking creative lines, reacting to each other’s movements and making the small course feel larger than its dimensions.

Team Norway won the 2026 edition ahead of Sweden’s Jesper Tjäder and Oliver Movenius, while Denmark’s Jakob Ebskamp and Gorm Garth-Grüner finished third. The result was not a World Cup or a FIS title. It was a style-driven summer contest where timing, feature use and the connection between two skiers carried as much weight as rotation count. For Ruud, it provided a current public marker after a career that has moved between sanctioned contests, film work, natural-terrain events and rail-focused sessions.

Chiesa in Valmalenco Before the Film Years

Ruud’s competitive record began well before his recent creative projects. At the 2014 FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Chiesa in Valmalenco, Italy, he finished third in men’s slopestyle. The podium came in a field where the discipline was already changing quickly: rails were becoming more technical, switch takeoffs were expected, and double-cork rotations were moving from rare statements into normal contest language.

That Junior World result gave Ruud a formal foundation in a Norwegian freeski system crowded with strong park and big-air athletes. His FIS profile identifies him as a Norwegian skier born in 1995 and registered with Aal. The record also makes an important distinction: he developed through official competition, but his later public identity has not remained limited to bib numbers, rankings and start lists.

From Hafjell Starts to the 2017 World Cup Circuit

Between 2015 and 2018, Ruud built a steady competition record across Norway and Europe. FIS lists him first in the Norwegian national big-air event at Hafjell in 2015, then records slopestyle wins at Drammen and Hovden during 2016. Those results put him in the part of freeskiing where a full run matters: speed through rails, disciplined takeoffs, grabs held long enough to read clearly and controlled landings that keep a skier moving into the next feature.

The 2017 season brought World Cup starts at Font Romeu, Seiser Alm, Silvaplana, Myrkdalen-Voss, Stubai and Mönchengladbach. His strongest World Cup big-air result came at Myrkdalen-Voss, where he placed ninth in qualification before finishing twelfth in the final. Slopestyle results at Font Romeu, Seiser Alm and Silvaplana did not become podiums, but they placed him inside a demanding international circuit with no room for incomplete runs or cautious trick choices.

Drammen’s 89-Point Big Air

One of Ruud’s clearest late FIS results arrived at Drammen in January 2018. He finished second in a Norwegian FIS big-air contest with 89.00 points, behind Kaupang’s 94.00 and ahead of Sebastian Schjerve’s 87.00. The gap was narrow enough to show the level of the field without turning the result into a title it was not. Big air reduces a skier’s day to a few decisive hits: takeoff pressure, spin axis, grab control and a landing that must be ridden away cleanly.

That contest also connects two Norwegian skiers whose later paths shifted toward freer formats. Kaupang became increasingly associated with rail culture, Jib League and video-led events, while Ruud moved toward projects that joined powder, natural terrain, park skiing and film production. The Drammen podium remains a useful meeting point between their earlier points-table careers and the creative scene that later brought them together at CopenHill.

When the FIS Record Stopped Being the Main Story

FIS currently lists Ruud as not active, and his visible FIS results end in 2018. That status does not mean he stopped skiing. It means his public output moved away from the traditional ranking system. The shift matters because many freeski careers become harder to read once an athlete leaves the World Cup path. A results page becomes quieter, while a different record develops through edits, crew sessions, invitational contests and terrain choices that would never appear in a federation database.

Ruud’s later profile is therefore best understood through that second archive. He retained the air awareness built in slopestyle and big air, then used it in settings where natural landings, improvised features, powder turns and crew chemistry were more important than a numbered start bib. The change is visible in the projects he helped make, rather than in a single retirement announcement or one sudden career break.

POSIVA Turned Norway into a Ten-Minute Mixtape

POSIVA, released in 2021, is the strongest documented film marker in Ruud’s creative record. He made the project with Karl Kristian Muggerud, bringing together a large group of skiers for a film shot across Norway in varied conditions. The edit begins with powder skiing and slower visual pacing before moving toward slush, park hits, playful stunts and heavy-metal energy. The contrast was deliberate: soft snow and smooth turns were allowed to sit beside bails, fast approaches and loose crew sessions.

The film matters because Ruud was not simply listed in a long cast. He was named as one of the people who brought the project together. That role gives the release a different weight from a team montage. It shows an athlete helping shape the tone, locations and structure of a ski film, while keeping the outcome closer to a friends’ project than a polished contest recap. Norway becomes the setting, but the mood comes from the crew.

LINE Team Footage Kept the Connection Visible

Ruud’s relationship with LINE Skis has also provided a visible film route. He appeared in the 2021 LINE Skis Team Mixtape, with his section arriving late in the full-length edit after a broad international roster. The release brought together park, street, powder and backcountry footage from riders whose approaches to skiing often differed sharply. Ruud’s inclusion placed him in a team environment where style and terrain choice carried equal importance to conventional contest results.

He was also listed in the 2022 LINE Skis Team Mixtape. These team films are not personal video parts with one location or a single narrative, but they confirm continuity. Ruud remained part of a brand-led freeski network after his FIS results had slowed down. The projects connect him with riders working across parks, streets and natural terrain, and they support the more accurate description of his career: competition-trained, but increasingly film-led.

Sugar Bowl’s Natural Terrain Changed the Test

In April 2025, Ruud won the men’s ski division at the Silver Belt Classic at Sugar Bowl in California. The event used a broad natural gully with cliffs, rollers and added lips rather than a standardized slopestyle course. Athletes built and judged the terrain themselves, then submitted their best of two runs for peer review. Ruud finished ahead of Kelly Killeke and Dillon Flinders, earning a result that fits his post-FIS direction better than a return to a conventional big-air scaffold.

The official Sugar Bowl event material describes Silver Belt as a format where freeride energy and slopestyle progression meet. That description matches Ruud’s recent record. A natural gully rewards speed judgement, landing assessment, turn control and the ability to find a line that feels personal rather than prescribed. It also gives a skier with flips, air awareness and playful terrain instincts more room than a fixed rail-and-jump sequence.

Freeride Roots, Rail Technique and a Wider Toolkit

Ruud’s current skiing cannot be reduced to one discipline. The World Cup years show slopestyle and big-air experience. POSIVA shows comfort with powder, slush and crew-built ideas. Silver Belt shows natural-terrain decision-making. Scandinavian Team Battle shows rail awareness and a willingness to make a short dryslope feature work alongside another skier. Each setting asks for a different balance of skills.

In a traditional slopestyle run, a skier has to preserve speed and control from the first rail to the final jump. In a natural-terrain contest, the line begins with reading snow texture, checking exposure and deciding where a landing can hold. On Neveplast, friction and short approaches change every movement again. Ruud’s record is strongest when viewed through that adaptability: a rider who can carry contest fundamentals into creative formats without pretending the formats are identical.

A Career Measured Beyond a Single Scoreboard

Robert André Ruud’s verified record runs from a Junior World slopestyle bronze in 2014 through FIS wins and World Cup starts, then into POSIVA, LINE team films, the 2025 Silver Belt Classic and Norway’s 2026 Scandinavian Team Battle victory. The FIS profile’s inactive status remains accurate for his federation career, but it does not describe the whole picture. His recent work belongs to a more open freeski space where filming, team formats and natural terrain create the meaningful results.

The latest confirmed chapter is the Team Norway win at CopenHill with Mikkel Brusletto Kaupang. That result joined a Norwegian contest background with the contemporary Scandinavian scene around rails, creativity and crew-driven events. Any future update should follow confirmed film credits, invitational results or project announcements rather than assuming a return to the World Cup calendar.