All eyes on Beijing for big air return to iconic Shougang
Dec 01, 2023·Freeski Park & Pipe
The FIS Freeski World Cup is right back at it this week with one of the most highly-anticipated competitions of the 2023/24 season, as we return to the scene of some epic memories from the 2022 Olympic Winter Games for big air action in Beijing (CHN).
Not only is the Beijing site the world’s first and only permanent, purpose-built big air jump, it’s also one of the most iconic snowsports venues in the world, situated as it is amongst the cooling stacks and other retired steel manufacturing structures of Beijing’s Shougang Park. The venue’s surroundings are almost as dramatic as the action set to go down on the jump, and there’s really nothing also like it anywhere in the world.
However, the big air jump is the jewel of Shougang, and an elite roster of the world’s finest freeskiers are on hand and ready to send this week, with two days of training leading up to qualifications on Thursday and finals on Saturday where the top eight women and the top ten men will duke it out for the podium.
GREMAUD LOOKS TO MAKE IT THREE-FOR-THREE TO START 2023/24
Leading the way into Beijing for the women is Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud, winner of both the Big Air Chur (SUI) season-opener in October and the Stubai (AUT) slopestyle World Cup last week, as well as being the Olympic big air bronze medal winner at this very venue just under two years ago.
While both Gremaud’s Chur and Stubai victories were based off of qualification results after finals at both events were cancelled due to the weather, Gremaud is well-known to have another gear to shift into when she drops in on an actual finals. Which is to say, with an ideal forecast through the week here in Beijing and finals a near-certainty (not to jinx anything), look for Gremaud to very much be back in the mix and pushing for her third-straight victory this weekend.
However, Gremaud is going to be in tough against the skier who finished just above her on the Olympic big air podium in 2022, as reigning big air World Champion Tess Ledeux (FRA) is also skiing exceptionally well so far in the early going of this season, finishing just back of Gremad in second place at both Chur and Stubai.
Ledeux lost out on Beijing 2022 big air gold to China’s Eileen Gu in Beijing by just .75 points at those Games, and big jumps like the one here in Shougang Park suit Ledeux’s big-spinning style to a T. Look for the 22-year-old Frenchwoman and reigning big air World Champion to send it all the way to 1620 at some point this week.
While Gu herself isn’t here in Beijing (although she is set to drop in next week at the Secret Garden halfpipe World Cup), there’s a few other strong contenders to watch out for on the women’s side of things, including 2023 World Championships silver medallist Sandra Eie (NOR), big air Junior World Champion Flora Tabanelli (ITA) and Beijing 2022 fifth-place finisher Kirsty Muir (GBR).
RAGETTLI AND PODMILSAK LEAD LONG LIST OF MEN’S CONTENDERS
With the whole men’s Beijing 2022 Olympic podium sitting this one out, things are somewhat wide open on the men’s side of things in terms of looking at past Beijing results as a sign of what’s to come this week. With that being said, a look down the list of starts here at Shougang shows no shortage of firepower.
On top of the list of contenders, as he so often is, you’ll find Andri Ragettli, who’ll be coming out swinging after failing to make finals here at Beijing 2022. Ragettli has been held off the podium at both the weather-shortened World Cups thus far in 2022/23, so expect the World Cup’s all-time most successful freeskier to have a little extra motivation this week.
Ragettli’s biggest obstacle to the top of the Beijing podium might be Troy Podmilsak (USA), as the reigning big air World Champion boasts one of the heaviest trick repertoires on the planet. Still the only skier on earth to stomp a forward triple cork 2160 (as far as we know), Podmilsak will be hitting the big jump in Beijing jump for the first time this week, and it should play to right to his strengths.
The heavy hitters don’t stop there for the U.S. team, as Mac Forehand and Alex Hall have also made the trip to China after the pair finished second and third last week, respectively, at the Stubai slopestyle World Cup. With Forehand skiing at the highest level we’ve ever seen from him through pre-season and into the early stages of the competition calendar, and Hall carrying his Beijing 2022 slopestyle gold and a whole bunch of good memories from his last China trip in his back pocket, the U.S. team is looking formidable, indeed.
With two days of training already completed we can tell you a couple more names who have been looking good so far here in Beijing and a good chance to be in the mix for finals, regardless of their results so far this season, including Spain’s Javier Lliso (boosting to the moon), Sweden’s Jesper Tjader (typical technical wizardry) and Norway’s Leo Landroe (reigning Junior World Champion and the next Norwegian great?).
The current leader of the men’s BA World Cup is Canada’s Dylan Deschamps, who earned his first major international podium with a victory in Chur to open the season. Deschamps was followed by another World Cup podium first-timer, Daniel Bacher of Austria, in second place.
While it might be a tough request for Deschamps or Bacher to repeat their podium performances here in Beijing under far different circumstances, their results their in Chur go to show that, with the level the competitors are at up and down the big air World Cup start lists these days, there are a whole lot of athletes who can step up to be the right skier on the right day.
WHERE TO WATCH
QUICK LINKS
FIS TV livestream (with restrictions)
Beijing data page (start lists, live scoring, results)
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