Freeski set to get in on Beijing Air + Style big air World Cup action
Dec 13, 2019·Freeski Park & Pipe
The 2019 Air + Style Beijing FIS Freeski World Cup is set to go down with qualifications on Friday and finals on Saturday afternoon at the brand-new Shougang Park permanent big air ramp, situated on the western outskirts of China’s capital city.
The Air + Style has been one of the world’s premier snowboard competitions for over 25 years, with the first A+S competition going down in Innsbruck (AUT) back in 1993. While it’s been held at a multitude of venues around the world since then, Air + Style’s history in Beijing began in 2010, with its history as a FIS Snowboard World Cup beginning in 2017/18 at Beijing’s Workers’ Stadium. This season marks just the second time that freeski has been included in the Air + Style programme, after the first such instance took place in Los Angeles in 2015.
On top of that, this season marks a new chapter in Air + Style’s history, as the competition moves locations to what is indisputably the world’s most beautiful and impressive big air venue. Formerly an industrial park on Beijing’s fringes, Shougang Park is being transformed into a centre of sport and culture ahead of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games - and the big air jump that will host Olympic competition in just over two year’s time is it’s centrepiece.
With such a setting - and the fact that this weekend’s competition is a first-time test run for the Olympics, as well as an Air + Style, as well as a FIS Freeski World Cup - anticipation for Saturday’s finals is high, and an incredible collection of riders from around the world is on hand to battle for top spot.
Gremaud leads the way into Beijing
On the women’s side of things we’ll see 16 of the world’s top freeskiers dropping in on the massive Beijing big air ramp for Friday’s qualifications, with six of those riders moving on to Saturday’s finals.
Tops amongst those to watch out for will be Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud, who comes into Beijing on top of the big air rankings after taking her career’s fourth big air World Cup win at the season opener in Modena (ITA). Last year’s second-overall finisher on the big air World Cup, the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic slopestyle silver medallist will look to keep the hot streak going as she seeks her first career crystal globe this year.
While she struggled slightly in Modena, finishing in seventh place, a better showing can be expected of Gremaud’s teammate Sarah Hoefflin this weekend in Beijing. Although she’s considered more of a slopestyle specialist (she won Olympic gold in PyeongChang, after all) Hoefflin does have three big air World Cup podiums to her name, and all the tools in her kit to add many more as her career moves forward.
And the Swiss strength doesn’t stop there, with Giulia Tanno coming into Beijing after a second-place finish in Modena - her fifth career big air podium.
Others to watch out for on the women’s side include Sochi 2014 Olympic slopestyle gold medalist Dara Howell, who earned third place in Modena in her return to competition after missing nearly all of last season due to a knee inury, and her Canadian teammate Megan Oldham, who finished fifth in Modena.
Hall’s absence opens door
Although current big air World Cup leader Alex Hall won’t be competing in Beijing, the men’s field on hand in Beijing is still an exceptional one, with easily a dozen riders who could conceivably claim top spot on Saturday.
As with the women’s field, one is immediately drawn to the Swiss team when looking for top competitors on the men’s side of things.
Unfortunately, Utah 2019 big air world champion and last year’s third overall big air World Cup skier Fabien Boesch has been forced to pull out of competition with a bruised heel. However, that still leaves winningest World Cup freeskier of all time and last year’s big air crystal globe winner Andri Ragettli to pick up the slack.
The Canadian team features the likes of five-time X Games medalist and PyeongChang 2018 slopestyle bronze medalist Alex Beaulieu-Marchand, Modena the super-technical Evan McEachran, the always-exciting Teal Harle, and last year’s Seiser Alm (ITA) slopestlye winner Max Moffat.
Sweden’s coming in hot with the imitable Henrik Harlaut leading the way. Owner of six X Games gold medal and five silvers, silver from the Utah 2019 world championships big air event, and the respect of nearly every freeskier on earth, Harlaut is nothing if not a joy to watch every time he puts on a pair of skis.
Norway will see 2017/18 big air crystal globe winner Christian Nummedal and big air, slopestyle, and halfpipe triple threat Birk Ruud in the mix, while Finland’s Elias Syrja has impressed throughout training in Beijing.
Everything starts on Friday the 13th in Beijing, where the best-two-of-three jump qualification round begins at 11:15 local time. Freeski finals will then be going down on Saturday, where the top right women and top 10 men will take to the world’s best big air jump looking to earn a podium spot at the second-ever Air + Style freeski big air competition.
QUICK LINKS
Air + Style Beijing Big Air World Cup data page (startlists, livescoring, results)
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