Slopestyle World Cup season kicks off in Font Romeu
Aug 31, 2018·Freeski Park & Pipe
Font Romeu (FRA) - The 2016/2017 FIS Freestyle Skiing slopestyle World Cup is set to get underway this weekend in Font Romeu with the first of the season's five competition staged at one of the most prestigious skiing contest in Europe - SFR Freestyle Tour.
Along with Font Romeu, who will host the World Cup competition for the first time, this season's tour will also visit the snowpark in Seiser Alm (ITA) at the end of January, just to fly to Northern America in February with two stops taking place one after another in Mammoth (USA) and Quebec City (CAN). The tour then will come back to Europe with the seasons' last World Cup scheduled for the first week of March in Silvaplana (SUI). For the finale, the FIS Freestyle Skiing slopestyle season will culminate on March 19, 2017, with the biggest event of the year- the Sierra Nevada 2017 Freestyle World Ski Championships in Spain.
While the event in Font Romeu begins the qualification process for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang (KOR) and the starting lists are chock-full of big names, we can expect nothing but plenty of world-class action from the season's opener in French Pyrenees.
With the last year's World Cup winner Tiril Sjaastad Christiansen (NOR) sidelined due to the meniscus injury, all eyes are on Emma Dahlstrom (SWE) and Lisa Zimmermann (GER). After three Big Air World Cup stops so far this season Dahlstrom is currently sitting on top of the BA WC rankings while Zimmermann is the Super Series leader. With both of skiers coming of a hot start into the season, it's hard not to see the last years slopestyle number 2 and 3 among the biggest favorites for the win in Font Romeu.
Besides Dahlstrom and Zimmermann, the list of other top ladies to watch out in France, as well as for the rest of the season, include Swiss duo of Giulia Tanno and Mathilde Gremaud, who despite the young age already know how it feels to stand on the World Cup podium and will be only looking to further improve with the course of the season.
Then add to the mix Italia's finest Silvia Bertagna, as well as the French slopestyle specialist Colline Ballet-Baz, who both posses the right right repertoire of tricks to step up the game and finish on top of the podium.
Finally let's not forget about always strong Canadian squad lead by the Sochi Olympic Games gold and bronze medalists - Dara Howell and Kim Lamarre, as well as the team USA with Devin Logan and Maggie Voisin leading the pack.
The 3D course preview in Font Romeu.
Things get even more intense on the men's side. Just to start with we have the Swiss Freeski Team with last year's slopestyle World Cup winner Andri Ragettli, as well as Kai Mahler, Luca Schuhler and Jonas Hunziker all making their way up to Font Romeu. In the big air ranking the Swiss athletes now sit on six out of ten best spots and with all their best skiers present in France, they will be just looking to copy and paste their hot result into the slopestyle World Cup standing. The competition is very strong though.
Representing Sweden Henrik Harlaut is clearly in a beast mode this season. He has already won two big air World Cup stops so far also adding the Dew Tour win to the list. Harlaut has all the necessary skills and a flawless style and he will be looking to extend his hot streak and dominate yet another competition.
The US squad is once again coming strong this year, throwing in all the best they have for the season's opening World Cup in Font Romeu with Gus Kenworthy, Joss Christiansen, Mcrae Williams, Bobby Brown and Nick Goepper leading the way.
Same stands for the Canadian Team that brought to Pyrenees its finest park specialists with Alex Bellemare and Alex Beaulieu-Marchand also sitting among the favorites for podium spots.
Last but not least keep an eye on New Zealand's Wells brothers as well as young and hot Norwegian team with Oystein Braaten and one of the candidates for the rookie of the year Eirik Sateroy in squad.
Men's qualifications are scheduled for Thursday 9:30 CET with ladies' qualifications going down on Friday at 10:45. The finals will take place on Saturday at 13:30 CET.
LIVE SCORING:
Live brackets will be available HERE
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LINKS:
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