Aerials Mixed Team event wraps up World Championships in Almaty
Mar 11, 2021·Freestyle
The FIS Freestyle Ski World Championships in Almaty closed out in epic fashion on Thursday, with a hugely entertaining aerials mixed team event ending with Liubov Nikitina, Pavel Krotov and Maxim Burov on top of the podium with gold medals in hand.
The snow rolled into Almaty’s Shymbulak Ski Resort right after the individual competition wrapped up on Wednesday, and so the snowy venue and truly magical winter conditions welcomed seven teams on Thursday for the second ever World Championships aerials team competition.
Team Switzerland entered the event in Almaty as the reigning World Champion squad after Carol Bouvard, Nicolas Gygax, and Noe Roth put on a collectively inspired performance to best traditional aerials powerhouses in Deer Valley back in 2019. However, with as many as three athletes on the podium in the individual event on Wednesday, it was indisputable the RSF team dropping in as a top candidate for victory this time.
And indeed through the first round of jumps it was RSF team, lead by Wednesday men’s individual gold medal winner Maxim Burov, as well as two bronze medalists Liubov Nikitina and Pavel Krotov, looking like the strongest bet for gold with the leading combined score of the four teams to make it through to the super final.
In the superfinal Nikitina put down a solid double Full-Full, and Krotov, who jumped second came with a little backslap. But then again it was Burov, who stepped it up and cleanly landed his Full-double Full-Full, giving the team a combined score of 300.94 points for the gold medals.
Switzerland with the likes of the 2019 World Champions Carol Bouvard and Noe Roth, as well as Pirmin Werner in squad, finished in the silver medal positions with a score of 293.46 points.
Wednesday’s silver medallists Ashley Caldwell and Christopher Lillis, as well as Eric Loughran representing team USA, rounded out the podium in third place and the bronze medals with a combined score of 247.74 points.
With the 2021 World Championships in the books now, Almaty’s Shymbulak Ski Resort is gearing up to host the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup finals with the aerials competition slated to go down on Saturday, March 13 and the dual moguls event closing out the season on Sunday, March 14.
QUICK LINKS:
Almaty World Championships data page (startlists, live timing, results)
Photos: Aerials Mixed Team
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