Heavy field on hand for Calgary Snow Rodeo slopestyle World Cup
Feb 13, 2020·Freeski Park & Pipe
This week will mark a bit of history at one of the most important venues in Canadian skiing, as the first-ever slopestyle World Cup at Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park is set to go down with qualifications slated for Thursday beginning at 9:45 local time, and finals on Saturday, February 15, beginning at 13:00.
The site where aerials skiing made it’s Olympic debut as a demonstration sport at the Calgary 1988 Olympic Winter Games, Canada Olympic Park this week is now fully set up with a park designed by Charles Beckinsale of Stomping Grounds Park fame, and ready to host the world’s top freeskiers in what is shaping up to be an exceptional week of action.
Last week was a little break in World Cup action as a good chunk of the freeski world dropped by Copper Mountain for a snowy set of competitions at the Dew Tour, and with so many good riders already gathered in North America, the field who made the shift north to Calgary is looking very strong indeed.
Hoefflin’s absence opens door for tightly-packed women’s field
With World Cup slopestyle rankings leader Sarah Hoefflin (SUI) out of the running in Calgary due to an injury suffered last week at the Dew Tour, the path to this season’s crystal globe has suddenly opened up for huge number of riders on the women’s side of competition, with fully 22 riders within 100 points of each other from number two to 23 on the standings.
Tops amongst those skiers is the USA’s Caroline Claire, who earned the win in Seiser Alm (ITA) a few weeks ago and has 122 points so far in the 2019/20 season. Super smooth and boasting a deep bag of tricks on both the rails and jumps, Claire is a serious contender for top spot on this season’s World Cup.
However, as mentioned, it’s as tight a field as we’ve ever seen with two competitions remaining in the season, and it really is anyone’s game.
PyeongChang 2018 Olympic slopestyle silver medallist Mathilde Gremaud (SUI) is currently sitting in 15th place on the World Cup standings, with a fourth and 15th place result in her two World Cups entered thus far. However, the 20-year-old sat out the Mammoth competition two weekends ago after a crash in training, only to return to competition at Dew Tour and promptly take the win, putting her straight back onto the list of favourites this week in Calgary.
Also representing the Swiss is Guilia Tanno (SUI), who has has four runner-up results in 2019/20 so far - three in big air and one at the season-opening slopestyle World Cup in Font Romeu (FRA) - and will be back in action after also sitting out the Mammoth competition.
Johanne Killi (NOR) finished just behind Gremaud at Dew Tour, and with a runner-up in Seiser Alm and a win at the Beijing big air competition before the holiday break, has shown moments of brilliance this season. She, along with her teammates Sandra Eie and Tora Johansen represent a strong Norwegian team.
And finally there’s the host Canadians, with Elena Gaskell, Megan Oldham, and Sochi 2014 slopestyle gold medallist Dara Howell all on hand and well-capable of hitting the podium on home soil this week.
Men’s slopestyle field boasts the best of the best
Over on the men’s side of things there’s virtually nobody who you would like to see on hand in Calgary not in attendance, making this preview not so much a task of picking favourites as it is a simple exercise in rattling off the names.
Fabien Boesch (SUI) currently leads the World Cup standings after three slopestyle World Cups, and though the Kreischberg 2015 world champion has been skiing well, his placement atop the standings certainly doesn’t of the season.
Boesch has one podium this season - a second in Seiser Alm - and two other top fives, giving him 175 points to put him just 10 up on his countryman Andri Ragettli. Ragettli, meanwhile, comes into Calgary fresh off a win at Mammoth and third place at Dew Tour.
The Dew Tour slopestyle win went to Christian Nummedal (NOR), who only got into the event as an alternate before going on to something of a surprise win, where he was closely followed up by Alex Hall in second.
Hall currently sits second in the big air World Cup standings with victories in both competitions he’s entered this season, though he’s been less fortunate in slopestyle where he has yet to crack the top 10 in two competitions entered.
The only man above Hall on the big air standings is Birk Ruud of Norway, who also sits in third on the slopestyle rankings, AND who is set to compete in halfpipe competition here in Calgary, where he’s also a legitimate podium threat after finishing fifth two weekends ago in Mammoth. Ruud’s season is shaping up to be one to remember any way you slice it, as few in recent years have had the sort of success that the 19-year-old is enjoying across all three freeski events.
It’s a season reminiscent of the kind that Gus Kenworthy used to have, not so long ago, which is convenient segue to the fact that Kenworthy is on hand here in Calgary and ready to enter his first World Cup competitions in over two years, representing his newly adopted nation of Great Britain. Lest anyone think Kenworthy has lost a step at 28-years-old after a series of injuries and setbacks, he went ahead and took second place at last week’s Dew Tour halfpipe competition - though he did struggle somewhat in the slopestyle there in Copper Mountain where he couldn’t put down a clean run and finished 16th.
Henrik Harlaut and Jesper Tjader of Sweden, Teal Harle and Mark Hendrickson of Canada, Colby Stevenson and Cody Leplante of the USA…we could go on and on, but the short version of the long story is this one is going to be well worth watching no matter who you’re backing for Saturday’s finals in Calgary.
WATCH LIVE:
Eurosport 1 Asia, Eurosport Player, ORF Sport+, CCTV5+, L'Equipe Web, RAI Web, SRF Zwei, BBC Player, Teledeporte, SVT Play, NBC Olympic Channel and NBC Sports Gold
QUICK LINKS:
Calgary data page (start lists, live scoring, results)
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