2019/20 Continental Cup round-up

Lost in the shuffle at the unforeseen early end to the 2019/20 season was the conclusion of the Nor-Am, Europa, and Asian Continental Cup tours, where a handful of deserving snowboard and freeski athletes were able to earn themselves a guaranteed quota spot for 2020/21 World Cup competition action.However, difficult snow condititions in some planned venues and the season's early end meant not all events had enough comptitions to give athletes the opportunity to qualify for the World Cup spots.

SNOWBOARD:

On the snowboard side of things, slopestyle/big air requirements were met for the NorAm and Europa Cup seasons (1 quota spot for each gender in slopestyle/big air combined), while halfpipe quotas were met for Asia Cup athletes.

The USA's Ty Schnorrbusch and Dusty Henricksen took top spots on the NorAm circuit, with Henricksen also ripping it up on the pro ranks in 2019/20 by taking a win at the Mammoth Mountain World Cup and finishing the season ranked third overall in slopestyle.

Over on the Europa Cup it was Lia-Mara Boesch of Switzerland and France's Sebastien Konijnenberg who were able to punch their ticket to World Cup competition next season by earning the best results across slope and big air competition over the season.

Finally, on the Asian Cup, the Korean pair of  Sunoo Kwon and Kwang Ki Lee came out on top.

FREESKI:

In the 2019/20 freeski Continental Cup season we saw athletes earning their World Cup spots in slopestyle/big air and halfpipe in NorAm Cup competition and in slopestyle/big air only in Europa Cup competitioin. unfortunately, there were not enough competitions in Asian Cup action to qualify any freeskiers from that tour.

Once again it was a pair of US slopestyle/big air athletes able to grab freeski spots for next season from the NorAm circuit, with Rell Harwood and Hunter Henderson leading the way. In halfpipe competition, meanwhile, it was the USA's Hanna Faulhaber and Andrew Longino of Canada earning spots.

Over on the Europa Cup tour we saw Aliah Delia Eichinger of Germany and Emil Granbom representing Sweden who put down standout seasons to earn their places on the big tour in what is an exceptionally important season as we move towards the Zhangjiakou 2021 Snowboard, Freestyle & Freeski World Championships and the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.