2019/20 halfpipe World Cup season comes to close in Calgary
Feb 15, 2020·Freeski Park & Pipe
It was nothing if not dramatic at the final night of competition in the 2019/20 FIS Freeski Halfpipe World Cup season at the Calgary (CAN) Snow Rodeo, where Eileen Gu (CHN) and Gus Kenworthy (GBR) took the victories with standout performances, and Valeriya Demidova (RUS) and Aaron Blunck (USA) walked away with the crystal globes as the season’s top performers.
Gu takes first halfpipe World Cup win, Demidova takes first crystal globe for Russia
A triple threat in halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air (she took medals in all three competitions at the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games), Gu is already in the conversation as perhaps the world’s best freeskier at just 16-year-old. On Friday night she strengthened her case for that claim with three top-notch runs, finishing things off with a victory lap that was anything but mellow.
Near perfect throughout her final run, Gu stomped a right cork 900 safety, left 540 double japan, right 720 safety, switch left 720 japan, and finally a left alley-oop flat five mute on her final hit to earn a score of 94.00 and the first halfpipe World Cup win of her career.
“I don’t think you can ever just expect to win a World Cup,” she said when asked if she saw Friday night’s win coming, “It’s all about going in and doing the best you can, and tonight I was able to perform and do something that I haven’t been able to do before. I just did the best that I could do and this is the best that I could have hoped for. Tonight was just incredible.”
Second-place on the night with a score of 89.20 went to Canada’s own Rachael Karker, who impressive with her typically lofty amplitude and diverse tricks, including a heavy left cork 900 safety to right cork 900 safety combo.
Meanwhile, Valeriya Demidova (RUS) would finish the night in third place with a score of 87.20 for her typically technical, rock-solid brand of pipe skiing.
The third place podium for Demidova capped off an incredible 2019/20 for the 19-year-old, who took podiums in four of five competitions on the season - including a win at the future Beijing 2022 Olympic venue in Secret Garden (CHN) - to earn the first-ever freeski crystal globe for a Russian athlete. With 345 points, Demidova topped the final podium over second overall Karker and third overall finisher Zhang Kexin (CHN).
“I got third place tonight and I have the globe…I’m one of the happiest people ever right now,” Demidova smiled with her trophy in hand, “Before me, we don’t really have podiums for Russian freeskiers, and now we’ve got a crystal globe. I’m super happy with how I’m skiing, but I still made some mistakes in my runs tonight. I’m going to put work in for next season and I think I’ll be even better. It will be so cool, I think.”
Kenworthy makes triumphant return, while Blunck edges Bowman for globe
Over on the men’s side of things it was a triumphant return to World Cup competition for Gus Kenworthy, who entered his first halfpipe World Cup in over two years and walked away with what is his first halfpipe World Cup victory in over four years.
Electing to go with four-hit run that contained nothing but massive bangers, Kenworthy put down a right-side 1080 tail, switch left double 1080 japan, left alley-oop dub 900 japan, and finally a left double 1260 safety to earn a score of 93.20 his third career World Cup victory, and his first win since adopting Great Britain as his national allegiance.
“I feel great,” Kenworthy smiled from the finish, “It’s my first halfpipe World Cup in two years, and it’s my first competing under the British flag, and I’m just so, so happy. I landed a run that I’m happy with, the level of riding tonight was amazing, and I’m very happy to share the podium with Brendan (Mackay) and Birk (Irving).
“I didn’t want to come back to competition slow and just kind of half-ass it. I wanted to come back really aggressive and strong, so it feels good. I honestly didn’t know if I was coming back or if I was done competing, but I took some time off and really missed it. It’s great to be back.”
Worth noting is that Kenworthy very nearly stomped a left double 1620 on his second run - inspired, it seemed, by Norway’s Birk Ruud, who managed to put down the incredible trick in his third and final run of the evening, although Ruud eventually washed out on his final air and finished in 9th.
As mentioned by Kenworthy, second and third place on the evening went to Brendan Mackay of Canada and the USA’s Birk Irving, respectively.
Mackay put down a gutsy final run that saw him start things off with a switch left double 1080 double japan and throw a left double 1260 blunt into a right double 1260 safety combo in the middle of his run, to earn a score of a 91.00 and a whole lot of love from the crowd for the the Calgary native - although he did bump his Canadian teammate Noah Bowman from a podium position in the process.
Bowman would soon be bumped a spot lower by another gutsy final run, this time from Irving, whose deceptively technical run included a left down-the-pipe double 720 high safety and a right double 12 safety.
Bowman’s slide from third to fifth had a dramatic and nearly unthinkable result, as what appeared to be a surefire crystal globe for the Canadian on home soil ended up with the 27-year-old actually finishing second overall, with the USA’s Aaron Blunck taking home the season trophy despite injuring himself in qualifications and not making it through to finals.
Blunck came into competition 20 points ahead of Bowman on the standings, and on a glance at the rankings and points system it would appear that Bowman only needed to finish fifth or higher to trump Blunck.
However, the Freeski World Cup rankings system only takes into account an athlete’s four best results on a season when there are five World Cup competitions, in order to allow top athletes who may miss a World Cup competition due to X Games or Dew Tour invites, or athletes who may miss one competition to compete in one of the other two freeski events (slopestyle and/or big air), the opportunity to still compete for the globe.
Because his best four results of the season - two victories, a second, and a third - outstripped Bowman’s, the two-time reigning world champion and 2017 X Games champion Blunck added another trophy to his case, taking the 2019/20 halfpipe crystal globe.
“I’ve had some goals that I’ve wanted to achieve in my career and winning a crystal globe has always been one of them,” Blunck said after awards, with his girlfriend and parents beside him, “I set the goal out and worked as hard as I could and to get this, I’m so stoked. I can’t believe it.”
“Noah’s my favourite guy to watch in the halfpipe,” Blunck went on, discussing his top competitor on the year, “The moment he drops in I feel like it’s all eyes on Noah. We have two completely different styles, but the friendship between us keeps growing all the time. The way we got to battle it out all season was incredible. He had a hell of a season.”
With Bowman settling for second, third place and the bronze medal on the 2019/20 halfpipe season rankings went to Birk Irving.
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