The Winter Sports Federation of Azerbaijan and the Shahdag Tourism Centre, with the support of the Japanese Embassy in Azerbaijan, organised a master class in mogul freestyle skiing. During the two-day event, athletes from Japan taught skiers, including local coaches, the intricacies of the sport and demonstrated extreme disciplines.

Azerbaijan has never sent an athlete to the Olympics in moguls, while Japan has won four medals at the Winter Games. Daichi Hara won the bronze in 2018 and Ikuma Horishima did the same in 2022. But Japan's biggest star is Tae Satoya, who won a gold medal at home in Nagano in 1998 and a bronze in 2002.

The Vice-president of the Winter Sports Federation of Azerbaijan, Florian Sengstschmid, noted the positive progress in the development of winter sports in recent years, pointing out that the necessary infrastructure for holding international ski competitions has already been created. In addition, a national ski mountaineering team consisting of local athletes has been formed. He said that the introduction of moguls in the country will encourage the training of local athletes.

Rustam Najafov, the Chairman of the Shahdag Tourism Centre, said that the aim of the masterclass was to promote winter sports in Azerbaijan and the Mongolian style of freestyle skiing. He also noted that since last year they have been actively working in this direction with the Japanese Embassy and experts from that country. He stressed that the cooperation relations will be expanded to give Shahdag the right to hold international competitions of this format in the coming years.

Ambassador of Japan to Azerbaijan Katsuya Watanabe said that one of the goals of his country in this field is to support the recognition of Mongolian sports in the world. The ambassador noted that there is a favourable infrastructure for the development of mogul, which is characterised by its extreme nature, as well as for the training of local athletes.

Mogul skiing or simply moguls has been an official sport of the Winter Olympics since 1988 as a demonstration sport and since Albertville 1992 as an Olympic sport. In addition to this form of freestyle, which is considered one of the extreme sports in the Olympics, there are also types such as acrobatics, ski cross, halfpipe, slopestyle and big air. Moguls are a series of bumps in a slope created when skiers push the snow into mounds or piles as they make short turns. They can also be created deliberately by piling up mounds of snow.