PARK CITY, UTAH – Telluride freeskiing phenom Gus Kenworthy climbed his way into the top ten at the first-ever FIS Slopestyle World Championships this Thursday, establishing himself as one of the skiers at the forefront of the fast-developing evolution of slopestyle skiing.

With his tenth place result in the finals Kenworthy joined the rest of the world’s young movers-and-shakers in slopestyle, which included the day’s gold-medal winning Park City local Alex Schlopy and fellow American Sammy Carlson, who took silver. Breckenridge’s Keri Herman led the U.S. women with a bronze.

Inclusion of slopestyle in the World Championships is seen as a possible precursor to inclusion of the sport in the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) sent one of its officials, Walter Bieber, to this year’s FIS Freestyle World Championships in Park City. After sitting in with the judges at Thursday’s competition, Bieber said in a statement: “What I have seen from slopestyle, it is very good. The IOC sending an observer here is very serious in recognizing eventually that slopestyle and halfpipe skiing could potentially be accepted.”