2022/23 World Cup season opens in spectacular fashion in Chur
Oct 24, 2022·Freeski Park & Pipe
The 2022/23 FIS Freeski World Cup season opened in spectacular fashion on Friday night, where big air heavyweights Tess Ledeux (FRA) and Birk Ruud (NOR) stepped up in front of a huge Big Air Chur Festival crowd to take the season’s first victories and help get this winter’s campaign off to a running start in Switzerland.
LEDEUX TWO-FOR-TWO IN CHUR
After finishing her big air season off in 2021/22 with a silver-medal performance at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, Ledeux was back to her winning ways on Friday night, defending her Big Air Chur title from last season with a gutsy final run to grab top spot.
While Ledeux announced that she meant business by opening her night at the Big Air Chur with 93.00-scoring left double cork 1260 mute stomped to perfection, the 20-year-old had a miscue on her second run and came into the final jump of the night needing something big to take her second straight win in Chur.
And big is just what she gave the thousands gathered at the bottom of the giant scaffold jump set-up, lacing a right side double 1080 safety that would give her a two-jump score of 181.00 for her milestone 10th career World Cup victory.
“I was super nervous before the final run, because I knew I had to land it to win,” said Ledeux, “I’m happy I was able to land it clean. It’s really special here with all this big crowd and I’m happy I was able to win here again.”
Second place - and her first career World Cup podium - went to Norway’s Sandra Eie, who also needed a bit of last run heroics after crashing in run two. Adding to her right double cork 1080 Japan from run one, Eie rode away clean from a left double cork 1080 safety on her final hit for a two jump score of 170.75 and the first of what would become two podiums on the night for Norway.
Third place belonged to Switzerland’s own Mathilde Gremaud, as the Beijing 2022 slopestyle gold medallist earned the lone top three spot of the night for the host squad with a combined score of 170.00 for her left double cork 1260 safety in run two and switch left double cork 1080 safety in her final run.
RUUD STOMPS MIND-BENDER SECOND RUN ON HIS WAY TO VICTORY
Over on the men’s side of things, reigning Olympic big air champion Ruud showed yet again that he is the absolute best in the business right now - while seeming to break the laws of physics in the process.
Like Ledeux in the women’s competition, Ruud came through with the top score of run one, earning a 93.00 when he stomped the left double bio 1800 mute that has come to be the signature trick of his career up to this point.
However, it was in run two where the 22-year-old really blew the roof of the Big Air Chur festival, when he landed a never-been-done-in-competition trick that earned him the highest score of the evening (a 95.75) and which simply has to be seen to be understood.
However, Ruud himself was gracious enough to attempt to describe the trick once the dust had cleared after awards.
“It’s a funky pretzeling rotation in there,” Ruud said, “It’s a switch dub 900 just kind of done in special way with a bit of extra spice on it. It’s amazing to do that trick and win here. You can feel that the crowd is really with you and it’s exciting. I’m so happy for Chur to be able to have this event. It’s really a pleasure for all of skiers and snowboarders to be here, so thank you Chur.”
The win was the ninth of Ruud’s career, and gave the big air/slopestyle/halfpipe triple threat a head-start on the Freeski overall crystal globe that just eluded him last year.
Second and third place went to two of the most promising up-and-comers in freeskiing, as Canada’s Noah Porter MacLennon and Troy Podmilsak of the USA both proved they’ve well and truly graduated from the Nor-Am Cup circuit by grabbing World Cup podium in their first World Cup finals.
Runner-up MacLennan showed no signs of feeling the pressure of the moment in front of the teeming Big Air Chur crowd, stomping all three of his runs in the final, beginning with a left double cork 1800 stalefish with a bit of a sketchy landing for a score of 82.50.
On his second hit MacLennan then earned a 90.00 for a switch left double cork 1800 mute, before revisiting his first trick left double cork 1800 stalefish, cleaning it up, earning a 90.00 for a two-jump score of 180.00 and walking away with his first career podium
Nineteen-year-old MacLennan was then joined on the podium by a fellow teenager, as Podmilsak stomped the second-highest scoring run of the night with a right triple cork 1800 mute for 94.75, before a final hit switch right double bio 1620 mute that would give him a two jump score of 179.75 - just .25 back of MacLennan but good enough for his first career Word Cup podium as well.
Combine that with his slopestyle and big air gold medals at last season’s Junior World Championships in Leysin and you’ve got quite the 2022 calendar year for the 18-year-old.
With Chur now in the books, the FIS Freeski World Cup now looks forward to the beginning of the slopestyle season in Stubai from the 18-19 November.
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