Alex Ferreira leads second U.S. halfpipe podium sweep of the season in Aspen
Feb 02, 2025·Freeski Park & Pipe
Team USA dominated the men’s halfpipe final at the U.S. Grand Prix in Aspen on Sunday as local skier Alex Ferreira led a podium sweep to claim his 11th World Cup victory in front of an ecstatic home crowd.
While Ferreira won with the highest score of the day in the men’s competition, Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin was the first to claim victory in the Aspen halfpipe on Sunday with her first World Cup win in over five years.
Ferreira saved the best until last in the men’s final to top the field with a third run score of 95.75.
Going into the last run, fellow U.S. skier Nick Goepper looked primed to take the win after posting a first run score of 94.00 that no one was able to beat until Ferreira’s last attempt.
His winning run began with a switch right double cork 1080 Japan and ended with a massive right double cork 1620 leading tailgrab as the crowd showed their appreciation for the high flying Aspen local.
Sunday’s win follows Ferreira’s victory at the last halfpipe World Cup stop at Copper in December, and marks his fourth podium of the 2024/25 FIS Freeski World Cup season after also finishing second at Cardrona (NZL) and Secret Garden (CHN) in September and December respectively.
Last season Ferreira claimed the freeski halfpipe Crystal Globe after topping all four halfpipe World Cup events, and the 30-year-old admitted this season has been challenging, with Goepper’s ascendance to the circles of freeski halfpipe’s elite pushing everyone else in the field to step up their game.
With Ferreira’s high score pushing Goepper to second, fellow U.S. skier Matthew Labaugh claimed his first World Cup podium with a third place score of 93.00.
Another U.S. skier, Hunter Hess, finished fourth on 92.50 points, while 16-year-old New Zealander Luke Harrold finished just 0.25 of a point behind Hess on 92.25 for fifth. Seven of the 10 men in Sunday’s finals earned a score above 90.00 points.
On the women’s side, Zoe Atkin (GBR) took an early lead after the judges awarded her 90.00 for her first run which featured a right alley oop 360 leading Japan and finished with a switch right 720 leading tailgrab.
Atkin last won a World Cup event in 2019 as a 16-year-old at Copper Mountain, and the 22-year-old now boasts a total of nine top-three World Cup finishes.
Atkin finished fourth on the same pipe during the X Games Aspen 2025 on 25 January and admitted that result had made her even more determined ahead of this weekend’s World Cup.
“I was definitely feeling really hungry after that and I was pretty bummed, but I was (thinking) ‘thank God there is another world Cup after this, I’m going to land my runs’. To win is the cherry on top.”
China’s Li Fanghui was runner-up on 88.50, her second podium finish of the season after also claiming second place in front of a home crowd at Secret Garden (CHN) in December.
Third place honours went to Canadian Amy Fraser on 86.75. Fraser’s result is her first podium of the season after coming close at the previous three halfpipe World Cup contests in Copper, Secret Garden and Cardrona where she finished sixth, fifth and sixth respectively.
Despite not competing in the U.S. Grand Prix in Aspen, Chinese skier Eileen Gu still leads the halfpipe World Cup standings after three back-to-back wins. With Sunday’s win, Atkin now trails Gu’s 300 points on 261 points.
In the men’s discipline standings, Ferreira leads the field with 360 points, followed by Brendan Mackay (CAN) on 259 points. Mackay finished ninth in Sunday’s final.
The fifth and final halfpipe event of the 2024/25 FIS Freeski World Cup season will take place in Calgary (CAN) between 14 and 16 February.
QUICK LINKS
Aspen U.S. Grand Prix Halfpipe World Cup data page (start lists, live scoring, results)
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