Utah 2019: Freeski big air preview
Feb 02, 2019·Freeski Park & Pipe
History will be written on Saturday evening at the Utah 2019 FIS Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships, when the first-ever freeski big air world championships competition goes down under the lights at Park City, right at the bottom of Doc’s Run at Canyons Ski Resort.
Following the International Olympic Committee’s decision from the summer 2018 to add ski big air to the Olympic programme for Beijing 2022, freeski big air was confirmed quickly as a new addition to the world championships programme, with Utah 2019 being the premier. And, with a perfectly shaped jump and the world’s best athletes on hand here in Utah, all the pieces are in place for an exciting start into the freeski portion of the Utah 2019 show.
The level of skiing at the big air competitions has been exceptional in the recent months, to say the least, with a new trick and grab combinations being put down at every event. And those ladies and gentlemen who constantly keep pushing the sport made it all the way to Park City to showcase yet once again how exciting big air competitions are.
In the ladies event we can except a show of doubles as at least seven out of 20 riders have one in their trick repertoire.
Starting with the Swiss Freeski Team, watch out for PyeongChang 2018 Olympic slopestyle champion Sarah Hoefflin, one of the few ladies on earth who can spin a switch double cork in both directions. If the 28-year-old can stomp both her variations in the finals she will be very tough to beat indeed.
Still, Hoefflin will have to first beat her teammates Giulia Tanno and Mathilde Gremaud, with the second of that duo coming straight off a big air victory at X Games last week.
Also count on the local favourite Maggie Voisin, Johanne Killi out of Norway, Tess Ledeux dropping in for France, the current big air World Cup leader Elena Gaskell of Canada to be in the discussion at the Utah 2019 big air competition. And, last but not certainly not least, the Estonian wunderkind Kelly Sildaru, who finished on the podium in every event she has entered so far this season, will be there looking to top them all.
Things will be also extremely exciting over on the men’s side with almost 50 riders ready to drop in on the qualifications on Saturday morning, meaning that it’s definitely not going to be an easy task to grab one of ten spots granted for the men’s big air finals.
While it’s hard to call for favourites here, keep an eye on host-nation representative Alex Hall, Canada’s Alex Beaulieu-Marchand, Birk Ruud of Norway, the current big air World Cup number one Andri Ragettli of Switzerland, as well as the freeski super hero Henrik Harlaut representing Sweden.
Even with a a list of heavy names like that, it’s still shaping up to be anyone’s game once finals go down under the lights in Park City. But however it goes, it’s more that likely that we’ll have witnessed one of the best big air competitions in the history of freeskiing when it all wraps up on Saturday night.
Competition Programme
Saturday, February 2
9:40 MST - Ladies’ Qualification
12:00 MST - Men’s Heat 1 Qualification
14:20 MST - Men’s Heat 2 Qualification
19:00 MST - Ladies’ and Men’s Big Air Finals
Watch live:
ORF Sport + (Austria), CT Sport (Czech Republic), live-stream on www.areena.yle.fi (Finland), Silk Universal & Silk Sport HD1 (Georgia), BBC Red Button & online (Great Britain), Ziggo Sport Extra (Netherlands), Polsat Sport Extra (Poland), Match Arena (Russia), SRF (Switzerland), NBC Sports Gold & Olympic Channel (USA).
Live-streaming will be also available on FIS Freestyle Youtube Channel (geo-blocked in countries with exclusive media rights agreement).
QUICK LINKS:
Utah 2019 WSC data page (event programme, start lists, live scoring, results)
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