Halfpipe World Cup finals headline Mammoth freeski showcase
Feb 03, 2023·Freeski Park & Pipe
The 2022/23 FIS Freeski Park & Pipe World Cup tour moves onto Mammoth Mountain (USA) this week for the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix, where we’ll have both slopestyle the final competition of the 2022/23 FIS Freeski halfpipe World Cup season taking to Mammoth’s perfectly prepared venues from 1-4 February, 2023.
Halfpipe qualifications will be going down on Wednesday, 1 Feb, followed by slopestyle qualies on Thursday, halfpipe World Cup finals on Friday, and then slopestyle finals to close out another big week of action in Mammoth on Saturday. Sunday is a reserve day in case we encounter any weather-related delays.
We’re right in the middle of the heaviest portion of the 2022/23 freeski season at this point, with Mammoth coming on the heels of the Calgary Snow Rodeo, Laax Open and X Games, and with the biggest event of the season looming on the horizon as we prepare to roll into Georgia for the Bakuriani 2023 FIS Freestyle Ski, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships beginning on February 19.
All of which is to say that these few weeks make for an especially exciting block on the calendar for freeski fans around the world. With good weather forecast throughout the week in Mammoth and both the slopestyle and haflpipe venues looking as good as we’ve ever seen them here in Mammoth, we’re expecting this to be another exceptional week in the world of freeski.
It will also be an emotional week here in Mammoth, after news came down of the passing of Kreischberg 2015 halfpipe World Champion and 2018 Mammoth Grand Prix winner Kyle Smaine (USA) over the weekend. Smaine was a fiercely loved member of the ski community, and many athletes competing this weekend were close friends with him and are deeply feeling his loss. A memorial for Kyle will take place during halfpipe finals here in Mammoth.
HALFPIPE - WOMEN
When Eileen Gu (CHN) was sidelined after a heavy crash in training at X Games, her fellow Stanford University student Zoe Atkin (GBR) stepped up in a big way, dropping in on her first competition of the 2022/23 season and walking away with the win.
While we haven’t seen much of Atkin in World Cup competition over the past few seasons as she focuses on her studies, the 20-year-old proved in Aspen that she hasn’t missed a beat, and she’ll be looking to keep the momentum going heading into Bakuriani as the reigning World Champs bronze medallist.
Runner-up to Atkin at X Games was halfpipe World Cup leader Rachael Karker (CAN) who, with a win and two runner-up results for 260 points in three competitions thus far, has what will be her first career crystal globe already assured.
While Karker’s Canadian teammate Amy Fraser is mathematically within reach of her, for Fraser to take the globe would require Karker to withdraw before competition and Fraser to take the victory. It’s not an impossible circumstance, but it’s not a likely one either.
The USA’s Brita Sigourney is out for her fourth Mammoth podium this week, and finished third here last season, while her teammate Hanna Faulhaber will be looking to keep the momentum going from from her third place finish at the first of the two Calgary World Cups a couple of weeks ago.
Finally, keep an eye on Zhang Kexin, who has looked strong in training and is also coming off a third in Calgary, this time at the second of the back-to-backs there in Canada.
HALFPIPE - MEN
It’s a tight battle atop the men’s World Cup halfpipe rankings, with five skiers all within striking distance of current top ranked Birk Irving (USA) and his 220 points, and all five of those skiers amongst the very best of the halfpipe world.
Unfortunately, two of those contenders won’t be dropping in on this week’s action, as Irving’s U.S. teammate Alex Ferreira and Canada’s Noah Bowman were both injured at X Games and have been forced to sit out Mammoth.
However, the pipe masters still in the game with one competition to go are some heavy hitters, including last season’s crystal globe winner Brendan Mackay (CAN), rapidly rising star Jon Sallinen (FIN), and Mackay’s Canadian teammate and living legend Simon D’Artois.
All three of those skiers have World Cup podiums this season, and Mackay and Sallinen are both fresh off of earning top-3 results at X Games, with Mackay taking silver and Sallinen bronze. Mackay currently sits 28 points back of Irving, while Sallinen is 38 points behind; which is to say, there’s plenty still left to be decided before this season’s men's halfpipe globe is awarded.
First place in front of Mackay and Sallinen at X was the three-time Olympic medallist David Wise (USA), who battled the tough conditions there in Aspen to earn his fifth X Games gold. Despite being the elder statesmen in the field here in Mammoth at 32-years-old, Wise continues to get it done when it counts, and should be in the hunt for his fourth career Mammoth podium this weekend.
Others to watch out for over the coming days in the Mammoth halfpipe include Finley Melville-Ives and Ben Harrington of the always exciting New Zealand squad, and a whole bunch more skiers from the host U.S. team, including Hunter Hess, Cassidy Jarrell, Matthew Labuagh, and two-time World Champion Aaron Blunck, who will be paying tribute to his good friend Kyle Smaine with every run.
SLOPESTYLE - WOMEN
While she’s well down on the current World Cup slopestyle rankings as things sit right now, Canada’s Megan Oldham nonetheless stands atop the freeski world after an iconic performance at the X Games this past weekend.
There the unassuming 21-year-old put on a show that will go down in history, becoming the first woman ever to land a triple cork in freeski competition on her way to top spot in the big air competition in Aspen, and then backing that up by taking slopestyle gold as well. It was groundbreaking stuff all around, and it’s hard to argue with her status as facoutire for this week’s competition.
That being said, tops on the women’s slopestyle rankings is Norway’s Johanne Killi, and she is two-for-two in World Cup slopestyle competitions so far this season. While Killi wasn’t able to put down a clean run at X Games, she’s shown some of the best skiing of her career in World Cup competition this season.
Second overall behind Killi is Sarah Hoefflin (SUI), as the Swiss veteran continues to be a slopestyle powerhouse at 32 years of age. In six seasons of World Cup competition Hoefflin has finished outside of the slopestyle top-3 only once, and seems well on her to making that a sixth season out of seven in 2022/23.
Hoefflin’s teammate and Beijing 2022 slopestyle gold medallist Mathilde Gremaud is fresh off a second place finish at X Games, and she has two big air podiums and a fourth place from Laax in World Cup competition this season. As well, both Gremaud and Hoefflin are previous winners here in Mammoth.
Last season’s Mammoth third-place finisher Maggie Voisin, along with Marin Hamill and Rell Harwood, represent the host U.S. squad’s best chance at a podium this week, while the likes of X Games slopestyle bronze winner Kirsty Muir (GBR) and Olivia Asselin (CAN) should be watched as a couple more podium threats on the women’s side of things.
SLOPESTYLE - MEN
The men’s freeski slopestyle field here in Mammoth is perhaps the most stacked of any across all of the freeski and snowboard competitions set to go down this week.
Coming into Mammoth the hottest will be the host U.S. squad after some big successes at X Games, where Colby Stevenson took gold in slopestyle and Mac Forehand grabbed big air gold and slopestyle silver. Along with Beijing 2022 slopestyle gold medallist and current World Cup third-overall ranked Alex Hall, up-and-comer Troy Podmilsak, Hunter Henderson, Cody Laplante and a handful of others, there’s no team as deep as the American squad.
However, atop the slopestyle rankings right now is the greatest in World Cup history, as five-time crystal globe winner Andri Ragettli reclaimed the yellow bib with a win at his home resort of Laax a couple weeks ago. Ragettli took the win at Mammoth back in 2019/20 and should be fired up to return to the Mammoth podium after finishing just off the podium in fourth at X Games.
Atop the FIS Freeski overall World Cup rankings is Birk Ruud (NOR), who managed to nab third at X Games big air last weekend. Ruud has three wins and a third-place finish in four World Cup starts in 2022/23, and despite the fact he didn’t get the medal haul some might have expected at X Games, he’s still widely regarded as the best freeskier in the world right now.
Max Moffat and Evan McEachran of Canada, Beijing 2022 slopestyle bronze medallist Jesper Tjader and reigning big air World Champion Oliwer Magnusson of Sweden, Austria’s Lukas Muellauer, Thib Magnin of Spain, France’s Antoine Adellisse…the list goes on for slopestyle men. This is going to be a good one.
WHERE TO WATCH - HALFPIPE
YOUTUBE LIVESTREAM, EUROSPORT PLAYER (ASIA, EUR), ORF SPORT+ (AUT), CBC SPORTS STREAMING (CAN), CT SPORT (CZE), TV3 SPORT 3HD (EST), YLE AREENA (FIN), V SPORT+ (FIN), L'EQUIPE STREAMING (FRA), RAI SPORT (ITA), JSPORTS 2 (JPN), TV3 SPORT (LAT, LIT), ESPN LATIN AMERICAN, V SPORT 3 (NOR), POLSAT SPORT NEWS (POL), JOJ SPORT (SVK), VIAPLAY (GBR), V SPORT WINTER (SWE), SKIANDSNOWBOARD.LIVE (USA), OUTSIDE TV (USA)
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