Slopestyle World Cup season set to start at Laax Open
Jan 17, 2023·Snowboard Park & Pipe
The biggest celebration of snowboarding of the season is upon us, as we are once again back in Switzerland for the world-renowned Laax Open, where a huge week of action will see men’s slopestyle qualifications go on Wednesday, 18 January, qualies for both women's and men’s halfpipe take place on Thursday, 19 January, women’s slopestyle qualifications on Friday, 20 January, before finals for both slopestyle and halfpipe take to Laax’s storied slopes on Saturday, 21 January.
The snowboard community from around the world has descended upon Laax once again this week, and that of course includes an absolutely stacked line-up of competitors across all fields set to duke it out on what are perhaps the finest slopestyle and halfpipe venues in the world.
This will be the seventh season that the FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe World Cup has partnered with the Laax Open, and with snowboarding progression at what feels like an all-time high right now, we expect that this one could be the very best yet.
It’s a fresh slate for all riders at the Laax Open, as this week marks the first of four World Cup slopestyle competitions set to go down this season. As mentioned, the women’s and men’s startlists for both the slopestyle and halfpipe events are too stacked to do full justice in the preview, but we’ll look at a few key names below…
WOMEN’S LEVEL AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH AHEAD OF LAAX SLOPESTYLE
Last year’s second-place Laax slopestyle finisher Anna Gasser (AUT) comes into this week fresh off a hugely-impressive big air victory on home soil in Kreischberg, where she triumphed despite some simply groundbreaking performances up and down the women’s finals.
Gasser was able to hold off reigning Beijing 2022 slopestyle gold medallist Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL) and her first-time-stomped-in-competition switch backside 1260 in Kreischberg, which may give the the 21-year-old New Zealander a little extra fire to take the next step to the top of the podium this weekend.
Last year’s Laax winner and Beijing 2022 Olympic bronze medallist Tess Coady will be looking to go back-to-back in Laax this week, although she might need a bit of a reset after the disappointment of not making the finals this past weekend in Kreischberg.
Japan’s Kokomo Murase finished third behind Gasser and Sadowski-Synnott in Kreischberg on Saturday, and last season’s slopestyle and Park & Pipe overall crystal globe winner leads a typically strong Japanese team that also includes this year’s big air crystal globe winner Reira Iwabuchi, Miyabi Onitsuka and rising star Mari Fukada.
North America will be well represented, with 2020 Laax Open winner and Beijing 2022 silver medallist Julia Marino and Hailey Langland of the USA dropping in, while their neighbours to the north the Canadians have Edmonton big air World Cup winner Jasmine Baird and reigning big air World Champion Laurie Blouin.
Keep a close eye on Mia Brookes, the 15 year old who wowed the crowd in Kreischberg with the first ever flat-spin 1260 landed in a women’s snowboard competition last weekend. Brookes’ rail game is arguably stronger than her jumps, so she could be a force come Saturday.
And don’t forget about Annika Morgan of Germany, last season’s third-place finisher in Laax, who’s on site for her first competition of the season and looking to do a little shredding in between DJ sets.
LOADED LAAX MEN’S STARTLIST PROMISES HEAVY COMPETITION
For the men it’s a veritable who’s-who of the competition world on hand here for the Laax slopestyle - save for the absence of the respective Beijing 2022 slopestyle gold and silver medallist Max Parrot (CAN) and Su Yiming (CHN).
Still, despite those notable no-shows, this field is long and deep, with possibly 1/3 or more of the 63 rider-strong startlist capable of finding their way onto the podium come Saturday.
With that in mind, maybe we should start by discussing the Japanese team, who are fresh off a historic sweep of the podium last weekend in Kreischberg.
Leading the way there was 17-year-old Taiga Hasegawa and his two-ways 1800s, followed by Ryoma Kimata and his third run 1980 (the first 1980 ever landed in competition), and then 18-year-old Kira Kimura, who grabbed a piece of the podium in the first World Cup start of his career.
The Japanese team is so deep that Kimura won’t even be starting this week in Laax, as this season’s Big Air Chur winner Takeru Otsuka and Hiroto Ogiwara (who very nearly stomped a SWITCH backside 1980 in Kreischberg) are higher on the Japanese ranks. It’s an astonishing wealth of talent on the Japanese team right now, and it’ll be interesting to see how the young squad does on the Laax stage.
The USA is probably second on the national power team rankings, with last season’s Laax winner Sean Fitsimons and PyeongChang 2018 Olympic gold medallist Red Gerard leading the way. With this season’s big air second-overall Chris Corning, style kings Luke Winkelmann and Dusty Henricksen, Brock Crouch, Judd Henkes and 2022 Laax Open third-place finisher Jake Canter all also amongst the ranks, the U.S. team is simply no joke this week.
With Marcus Kleveland and Mons Roisland on hand, the Norwegian contingent boasts the last two Park & Pipe overall crystal globe winners and two of the most purely talented and exciting riders in all of snowboarding. Kleveland has a win already this season from the Copper Mountain (USA) big air, while Roisland will be making his 2022/23 competition debut. And, with Oyvind Kirkus qualifying first in his heat at Kreischberg last weekend, it’s looking like there might be another heavyweight from team Norge on his way up.
This far into the preview and we still haven’t mentioned one of snowboarding’s de facto GOATs - Canada’s Mark McMorris.
McMorris only has one Laax Open start since it become a World Cup event (which came back in 2017, where he scored second place), and it goes without saying that the snowboard world is excited to see one of the most decorated and influential riders in snowboard history back on site at snowboarding’s premier competition. With McMorris, Darcy Sharpe, Nic Laframboise, and young gun Cameron Spaulding dropping in, the Canadian contingent is looking sneaky strong.
Last season’s slopestyle crystal globe winner Tiarn Collins of New Zealand is back from injury and ready to roll for his first competition of the season, while his fellow southern hemisphere representative Valentino Guseli of Australia is fresh off becoming the youngest-ever men’s big air crystal globe winner, and looking to keep that momentum rolling in his quest for this season’s Park & Pipe overall crystal globe.
Fan favourites Rene Rinnekangas of Finland and Sven Thorgren of Sweden, Emiliano Lauzi, Ian Matteoli and a deep Italian team, Nicolas Huber and Moritz Boll of the host Swiss…the list goes on and on.
Get ready, because this is going to be a big one.
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