Season preview: 2017/18 halfpipe World Cup
Aug 31, 2018·Freeski Park & Pipe
We’re just over two weeks away from resuming the 2017/18 FIS Ski halfpipe World Cup season in Copper Mountain (USA), where the best pipe skiers in the world will get back to work after a three month break since the season-opening competition took to the slopes of New Zealand’s Cardrona resort back in September.
Following the Copper contest on December 8th, the halfpipe World Cup hops across the pond to China’s Secret Garden resort. There, just before the December holiday break, the halfpipe skiers will become some of the first athletes in the world to get a taste of their future venue for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
After that it’s a pair of competitions on US soil in January at Colorado’s Snowmass resort and California’s Mammoth Mountain, which will provide two of the last possible auditions for the top athletes to qualify for their respective national team rosters and punch their tickets to the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Korea in February.
While the presentation of the medals in Korea promises to be the emotional high point of the 2017/18 season, the halfpipe World Cup tour will continue after the Games with one final competition in early March, with the always-perfect pipe in Tignes (FRA) serving as the World Cup season-ender venue for the fourth straight season.
2016/17 FIS SKI HALFPIPE WORLD CUP TOP ATHLETES
Ladies:
Marie Martinod (FRA) - 360pts
Ayana Onozuka (JPN) - 250pts
Annalisa Drew (USA) - 225pts
Men:
Kevin Rolland (FRA) - 239pts
Benoit Valentin (FRA) - 235pts
Aaron Blunck (USA) - 219pts
SIERRA NEVADA 2017 FIS FREESTYLE SKI AND SNOWBOARD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Ladies:
Gold - Ayana Onozuka (JPN)
Silver - Marie Martinod (FRA)
Bronze - Devin Logan (USA)
Men:
Gold - Aaron Blunck (USA)
Silver - Mike Riddle (CAN)
Bronze - Kevin Rolland (FRA)
As mentioned, we’re already one competition into the 2017/18 halfpipe World Cup campaign, with Cassie Sharpe (CAN) and Alex Ferreira (USA) jumping out to early leads in the quest for this season’s crystal globes after taking the respective ladies’ and men’s wins in Cardrona.
While Sharpe should be a lock to represent Canada at the PyeongChang Games, Ferreira will be in tough amongst a US team that will see Sierra Nevada 2017 world champion Aaron Blunck, Sochi 2014 gold medallist, Voss 2013 world champion, and two-time crystal globe winner David Wise, two-time X Games gold medallist and winner of last season’s Olympic test event competition Torin-Yater Wallace, and all-around phenom Gus Kenworthy all pushing hard for their place at the Games. With his early season win Cardrona as well as a victory at 2016/17 season-ender in Tignes, Ferreira has put himself very much in the mix to earn a spot on what will be a stacked US Olympic roster.
The USA will, of course, also be extremely well-represented on the ladies’ side this season, with Sochi 2014 gold medallist Maddie Bowman and Sochi 2014 silver medallist and 2015/16 Freestyle overall crystal globe winner Devin Logan leading the way. Look for strong showings from both these athletes in the next few months as they push for repeat performances in Korea this February.
However, with all of that being said, it was the French team who took home the heavy hardware from the 2016/17 World Cup season, with veteran Marie Martinod capturing the second crystal globe of her career (an incredible 13 years after winning her first one), and the dynamic duo of Kevin Rolland and Ben Valentin finishing 1-2 on the men’s final standings to give Roland his second-straight globe and the third of his career.
Throw in a silver for Martinod at the Sierra Nevada 2017 world championships and a bronze for Rolland at the same contest, and podium results for both those skiers at the season opener in Cardrona, and you’ve got a French pipe team riding high into what will be an intense few months on the halfpipe circuit.
Not to be forgotten on the ladies side of things is Japan’s Ayana Onozuka, who finished runner-up to Martinod on the World Cup standings last season after winning back-to-back halfpipe titles in 2014/15 and 2015/16. With 13 podiums in 22 career World Cup starts Onozuka is one of the most consistent halfpipe skiers in the world, and she could very easily improve upon her bronze medal performance at Sochi 2014 come time for the big show in PyeongChang in February.
It remains to be seen if there are any “dark horse” candidates who will emerge this season on the ladies’ halfpipe tour since top prospect Kelly Sildarou of Estonia suffered a season-ending knee injury just after making a remarkable debut on the World Cup circuit with a slopestyle win and a halfpipe runner-up finish in Cardrona.
On the men’s side, however, there are any number of skiers lurking in the shadows who can step up and take a podium spot on the right day. With the veteran Canadian trio of Mike Riddle, Simon D’Artois, and Noah Bowman, teenage up-and-comers like Birk Irving (USA) and Miguel Porteous (NZL), and several others who have shown in the past their ability to push the limits and put down impressive runs, there is no easy way to predict how the chips might fall in what should be one of the most important seasons in ski halfpipe history.
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