Freeski slopestyle World Cup season preview 2023/24
Nov 11, 2023·Freeski Park & Pipe
While the 2023/24 FIS Freeski World Cup season already got off to a (somewhat abbreviated) start a couple of weeks ago at the rainy Big Air Chur festival in Switzerland, we’re now set to turn our attention to the beginning of the slopestyle campaign, with the season’s first competition set to go down from 24-25 November in Stubai (AUT).
Stubai will be the first of five slopestyle World Cup competitions on this season’s calendar, and we’re expecting big things again on the tour this season, with well-established venues throughout the calendar and the world’s finest freeskiers fired up and hungry for the season’s ultimate prize - the crystal globes.
Read on as we take a deeper dive into what’s to come between now and the season finale in Silvaplana (SUI) in March…
THE VENUES
STUBAI - AUT - 24-25 NOV 2023
For the fifth time in the past six seasons we’re looking forward to launching the slopestyle season up high on the Stubai Glacier, where the world-renowned Prime Park Sessions slopestyle set-up has become an early-season favourite training ground for freeskiers and snowboarders from around the world. With the slopestyle World Cup season-opener largely piggybacking off the Prime Parks set-up the and most of freeski’s finest already on hand and well-acquainted with the course, you know it’s going to be a heavy one at the Stubai Zoo.
LAAX OPEN - SUI - 17-21 JAN 2024
The slopestyle World Cup will take a back seat through December while we focus on big air competition, returning in the new year for freeski’s second ever turn taking part in the legendary Laax Open. There’s not much to say about the Laax Open that hasn’t been said before; it is, quite simply, one of the most respected, historic and important competitions in snowboarding, and has been for 20 years now. With the freeski World Cup now an integral part of the Laax Open week, the event just keeps getting bigger, better and radder every season.
MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN U.S. GRAND PRIX - USA - 31 JAN - 4 FEB 2024
Once again Mammoth Mountain is set to host the biggest Park & Pipe week of the season, with the full freeski and snowboard, slopestyle and halfpipe World Cup tours slated to descend on the Californian resort for a packed week of action to take us into February. Mammoth is an OG FIS Freeski World Cup stop, with hosting duties dating back to the 2011/12 season, and the U.S. Grand Prix remains a legendary name in freeskiing and snowboarding. When the sun’s shining and Mammoth is firing, there’s few better places to be on earth.
TIGNES MOUNTAIN SHAKER - FRA - 13-16 MAR 2024
Tignes stepped things up at the Mountain Shaker in a big way last season, revamping the slopestyle course and showing once again why it’s the resort with the deepest FIS Freestyle World Cup history in Europe. With nighttime big air World Cup action getting thrown into the mix for the 2023/24 season we expect this winter’s turn in Tignes to be one of the most exciting in the resort’s 44 years of hosting World Cup action.
SILVAPLANA - SUI - 22-24 MAR 2024
Ah, Silvaplana. Just the name itself brings to mind memories of sunny skies, end-of-season good vibes, and Corvatsch resort boasting one of the very finest jump lines anywhere on the planet. As the final competition of the World Cup season, Silvaplana is always a highlight, but throw in the fact that this will be the final warm-up event at the venue before it hosts the Engadin-St. Moritz 2025 FIS Freestyle, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships next season and you’ve got a whole other level as to why this one will be special yet again this year.
THE HEAVY HITTERS
We covered a bunch of the top dawgs to look out for this season already in our 2023/24 big air World Cup season preview HERE, with the likes of Tess Ledeux (FRA), Birk Ruud (NOR), Mathilde Gremaud (SUI) and Andri Ragettli (SUI) leading the way, so we’ll take the opportunity below to spotlight a few others we didn’t get to in that one…
WOMEN
SARAH HOEFFLIN - SUI - 32
At 32-years-old, Sarah Hoefflin is jokingly referring to her own skiing as “granny style” these days, but that shouldn’t distract you from that fact that the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic champion remains one of the absolute best slopestyle skiers on the planet. Last year Hoefflin finished second overall on the slopestyle rankings - her sixth top-3 ranking in her seven years of World Cup action - showing that she’s still got plenty left in the tank.
KELLY SILDARU - EST - 21
We didn’t see a lot of Estonian star Kelly Sildaru last season before she injured her knee at the X Games, but what we did see showed yet again why she’s one of the most consistently dominant athletes in freeskiing. Sildaru took second place at the season-opening slopestyle in Stubai, before locking down a third place finish in the Copper Mountain (USA) halfpipe, giving the Beijing 2022 Olympic bronze medallist podiums in 13 of 15 FIS Freeski World Cups entered in her career, including at least one top-3 in each of slope, pipe and big air. She’s a force to be reckoned with, and we can’t wait to see her back in the bib this season.
EILEEN GU - CHN - 20
The wildcard of the freeski world. We’ve got a pretty good idea that the Beijing 2022 Olympic big air and halfpipe gold medallist and slopestyle silver medallist is going to compete in some halfpipe competitions this season, but we haven’t seen her in a slopestyle bib since she fell just short of making it triple gold in Beijing. Eileen Gu is essentially Superwoman at this point, taking a full course load at Stanford University, walking the Louis Vuitton runway in Paris Fashion Week, getting her face plastered on Tiffany billboards in Shanghai, and occasionally dropping in (and taking W’s) on freeski competitions just to remind everyone that she’s the best all-arounder in the world. We’re not sure where she’ll turn up this season, but it’ll be a must-watch event every time she does.
MEN
ALEX HALL - USA - 25
The reigning Beijing 2022 Olympic slopestyle gold medallist, the big man Alex Hall remains one of the purest and most innovative freeskiers on the planet. Though he only earned one World Cup podium last season - a second place in Laax - Hall finished in the top-10 in five-of-five World Cups entered and did it all with a vibe that kind of made it feel like he had another level he’s capable of, should he be so compelled. If we’re being honest, Hall can be a bit of an enigma sometimes; one thing we’re sure about, however, is that there are few who can match what he brings to the table on those days when it all comes together.
JESPER TJADER - SWE - 29
Now entering ‘elder statesman’ category as he approaches his 30th birthday next May, Jesper Tjader’s status in the world of freeskiing continues to grow as the Swedish technician continues to evolve and innovate while locking down the accolades in the process. Last winter Tjader finished third overall on the World Cup slopestyle rankings behind only Birk Ruud and Andri Ragettli after he earned the win at the season finale in Silvaplana. Shockingly, that win was only the second of his World Cup career, and came almost 9 years to the day after his first World Cup win at the same resort. Few, if any, freeskiers have had such a gap between their first two career wins, but for Tjader it stands as testament to his ability to adapt, grow and stay on the cutting edge of the most progressive sport on snow.
MAX MOFFATT - CAN - 25
When talking about Alex Hall and Jesper Tjader, we’re talking about two of the most iconic, innovative and well-respected freeskiers to ever do it. While he hasn’t quite hit the lofty heights of those two legends, Canada’s Max Moffatt is very much in the same cohort when it comes to his approach to freeskiing. Effortlessly technical and endlessly unpredictable, Moffatt is something of an artist in the way he works a slopestyle course, and while he didn’t land on the podium in any FIS Freeski events last season, a fourth place at the World Championships in Bakuriani showed that he’s very much in the mix with the elite players in the game.
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