Freeski big air favourites battle it out in Aspen at second-last World Cup
Feb 04, 2025·Freeski Park & Pipe)
Many eyes will be on Aspen this week as a week of freeski competition wraps up with a big air battle led by Italy’s Flora Tabanelli and New Zealander Luca Harrington.
The fifth big air stop of the 2024/25 FIS Freeski World Cup season at the Visa Big Air in Aspen (USA) will begin with women’s qualifications at 8:50 Mountain Standard Time (MST) on Tuesday.
The men’s qualifications will begin at 10:40 MST.
The women’s field is led by Italian teenager Flora Tabanelli, who last week won X Games gold on the same jump in Aspen, as did her older brother Miro Tabanelli.
Seventeen-year-old Tabanelli goes into the women’s qualifications as the top-ranked freeski big air World Cup skier thanks to her four top-three finishes since the big air season opener in Chur (SUI) where she was runner-up.
Tabanelli followed her strong start to the season with third place at Secret Garden (CHN) in December, followed by second place at Klagenfurt (AUT) in early January before claiming outright victory at Big Air Kreischberg.
The teenager also finished just outside the slopestyle podium at Laax (SUI) in fourth place, and missed out on the slopestyle final in Aspen after qualifying in 12th place.
With contenders such as last season’s big air Crystal Globe winner Mathilde Gremaud (SUI) and compatriot Sarah Hoefflin not competing in Aspen, Tabanelli’s main challengers on Tuesday will be French skier Tess Ledeux and Germany’s Muriel Mohr.
Ledeux recently returned to World Cup competition with a slopestyle World Cup victory in Aspen on 1 February off the back of an X Games gold medal on the same course on 25 January.
Before missing the first two big air World Cup competitions of 2025 in Austria, Ledeux won the big air contest in Beijing in December after earlier finishing fifth in Chur in October.
German skier Muriel Mohr is currently ranked fifth on the big air World Cup standings after Liu Mengting (CHN), Gremaud, and Hoefflin respectively. The 18-year-old German secured third place at Klagenfurt in January and also in Chur and recently finished fifth on the Aspen slopestyle course.
At the recent 2025 X Games in Aspen, Mohr finished last in the seven-skier field but gained acclaim for landing a double cork 10, as did Anni Karava (FIN).
The Finnish skier has one second place finish from Big Air Kreischberg to her name and qualified for four finals out of her six World Cup starts so far this season.
On the men’s side, X Games gold medallist Miro Tabanelli will be hoping to emulate the same success on the same jump, but this time at a World Cup. The older Tabanelli’s World Cup finishes this season vary between runner-up in Beijing in December, to 56th in slopestyle in Aspen on 1 February.
Otherwise big air World Cup standings leader Luca Harrington (NZL) is very much the man to beat after claiming back-to-back victories in Austria in January at Kreischberg and Klagenfurt. The 20-year-old also began his World Cup season just outside the podium with fifth place in slopestyle and fourth place in big air at Stubai (AUT) and Beijing respectively.
Trailing Harrington in the discipline standings is Matej Svancer (AUT), who was also Harrington’s runner-up at Big Air Kreischberg. Twenty-year-old Svancer also has a third place finish from Klagenfurt and an outright victory from Chur to his credit. The Austrian skier recently finished third, behind Harrington, at the 2025 X Games.
Norwegian Birk Ruud, Swiss skier Andri Ragettli and U.S. skier Mac Forehand are other names to watch in the men’s qualifications. Ruud finished third in slopestyle in Aspen on 1 February after winning the Laax Open in January.
After finishing within the top five in five of his seven World Cup starts this season, Ragettli will be buoyed by his recent X Games slopestyle silver medal. The 26-year-old finished sixth, fifth, fourth and fifth again at the big air World Cup stops in Laax, Kreischberg, Klagenfurt and Beijing respectively.
The top eight skiers from women’s qualifications and the top 10 from the men’s qualifications will progress to the finals beginning at 10:00 MST on Thursday 6 February.
BIG AIR FACTS & FIGURES
Birk Ruud (NOR) has six World Cup victories in big air, out of a total of 12 podiums.
Tess Ledeux (FRA) has amassed seven big air World Cup wins and trails all-time big air World Cup victories leader Mathilde Gremaud’s nine wins out of 13 podiums.
QUICK LINKS
Aspen Big Air World Cup data page (start lists, live scoring, results)
