Halfpipe skiers saddle up for Calgary Snow Rodeo this week
Dec 30, 2021·Freeski Park & Pipe
The 2021/22 FIS Freeski halfpipe World Cup is set to resume in frosty Canada this week, with a pair of nighttime competitions slated to go down - first on Thursday, December 30th, and then with a special New Year’s Day event on Saturday, January 1st - at the Snow Rodeo presented by Toyota at Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park.
With a ‘polar vortex’ settled over the Great White North and temperatures dipping as low as -30c at times, it’s shaping up to be a very Canadian competition this week in Calgary. However, as the weather conditions forecasted are similar to what we might expect in Secret Garden for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games in February, you can count on the athletes on hand at the Snow Rodeo to overcome the cold and push the limits in the coming days.
The pipe at COP is ready to go and there's a strong collection of the world’s best on hand here in Calgary. With just three competitions to go before Beijing, it’s time to start turning the dial up on the season.
High hopes for Canada’s Karker and Sharpe
The 2021/22 halfpipe World Cup season opened at Copper Mountain Resort back on December 10th, where China’s Eileen Gu continued her all-around dominance with the win there, followed up by Rachael Karker (CAN) in second and Kelly Sildaru (EST) in third.
With both of Gu and Sildaru sitting out this week’s action, Karker will be leading the way on the women’s side of things in her home-country competitions. Along with reigning Olympic gold medallist Cassie Sharpe, the host nation is looking like a favourite for a win (or two), as Sharpe and Karker finished first and second, respectively, here in Calgary back in the 2018/19 season. Karker also finished second the last time we were in Calgary in 2019/20, so the Canadians have justifiably high hopes for some more podium results this time around.
Along with their podiums at the Copper World Cup, Gu and Sildaru went 1-2 at the Dew Tour just before Christmas. With neither one of those elite talents in the starting lineup this week there’s a huge opportunity on the women’s side for some of the other skiers to step up and lock down a podium as we hit the homestretch towards Beijing 2022.
The USA’s Hanna Faulhaber grabbed her first major international podium spot at the Dew Tour just over a week ago with a third-place finish, after finishing fifth at the Copper World Cup the week before that, and the big-boosting 17-year-old seems to have solidified her place amongst the halfpipe world’s elite just in time for Beijing. With veterans Brita Sigourney and Devin Logan also looking like their consistently strong selves in the early going of the season, the US is well set-up to spoil the Canadians party this week.
Then there’s the Chinese team, with Li Fanghui and Zhang Kexin both coming off solid Dew Tour performances where they finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Both skiers have multiple World Cup podiums to their names and appear to rounding into form ahead of their home-country Games.
Finally, keep an eye on Zoe Atkin of Great Britain, as the Aspen 2021 World Championships bronze medallist looks to make the jump up onto the podium after she made finals at both the Copper Mountain World Cup and Dew Tour events, but wasn’t able to put down her best stuff when it counted.
Ferreira on fire heading into this week’s action in Calgary
Over on the men’s side of things it’ll be the hottest pipe rider in the world leading the charge into the Snow Rodeo this week, as the USA’s Alex Ferreira is fresh off back-to-back wins in Copper at both the World Cup and the Dew Tour events there.
Ferreira’s wins to start this season were both his first World Cup and his first Dew Tour wins since the 2017/18 season, when he went on to then claim silver at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games later on that winter. If his early results this season are any indication, the 27-year-old could be gunning for some more Olympic hardware in a few weeks time.
While we won’t be seeing reigning World Champion Nico Porteous (NZL) or two-time World Champion Aaron Blunck (USA) this week in Calgary, every other skier who hit the finals at Copper Mountain World Cup will be on hand and looking to deliver, including Canadian favourite Brendan Mackay.
With third place finishes in both the World Cup and the Dew Tour at Copper, 23-year-old Mackay is on an impressive hot streak of his own so far in 2021/22, and should be hyped up for more as he returns to the site where he earned his first-ever World Cup podium back in the 2019/20 season.
There will be a huge Canadian contingent flying the Maple Leaf along with Mackay, with veterans Simon D’Artois and Noah Bowman foremost amongst them.
While both are at the upper-end of the freeski age spectrum at 29 years old, D’Artois and Bowman continue to perform at an elite level, with D’Artois winning silver at last season’s World Championships in Aspen, and Bowman barely just missing out on a crystal globe win the last time we had a full World Cup season back in 2019/20. Bowman also has some top-3 experience here in Calgary, earning a podium the first time the halfpipe World Cup visited the venue, way back in 2013/14.
The Marineau brothers, Dylan and Evan, should also be in the mix for the Canadians come time for finals this week.
As with the women’s field, it’s the rest of the US team who is best positioned to deny Canada’s finest from dominating the podium as, along with Ferreira, we can look forward to seeing Aspen 2021 bronze medallist Birk Irving and two-time reigning Olympic gold medallist David Wise, as well as the likes of Lyman Currier, Jaxin Hoerter, Cassidy Jarrell, and Hunter Hess.
Legends Gus Kenworthy (GBR) (who was the men’s winner last time we were in Calgary for halfpipe competition) and Kevin Rolland (FRA) are also on the scene and looking to build some momentum heading towards what may be the last Olympic Games for each of them in Beijing, while Ben Harrington (NZL), Marco Ladner (AUT) and Mao Bingqing (CHN) are a few of the other international names to watch out for.
Find the broadcast and YouTube livestream links for each day of competition in Calgary below.
WHERE TO WATCH LIVE:
DEC 30 - Eurosport 1 Asia, Eurosport Player, CBC Sports Streaming, CT SPORT Web, Viaplay, L’Equipe Web, Arena, POLSAT SPORT EXTRA, JOJ TV, skiandsnowboard.live, Peacock
JAN 1 - Eurosport 1 Asia, Eurosport 2, Eurosport Player, CBC Sports Streaming, CT SPORT Web, Viaplay, V Sport+, L’Equipe Web, Arena, JOJ TV, skiandsnowboard.live, Peacock
QUICK LINKS:
FIS event data page (start lists, livescoring, results)
Livestream links (with geo restrictions) - Thursday / Saturday
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