Moguls & Aerials 2022/23 Nor-Am Cup season recap
Mar 11, 2023·Freestyle
With the end of the 2022/23 FIS Freestyle Ski moguls and aerials competition season over in USA and Canada, it’s time to take a look back at the major happenings on the Continental Cup level, where some of the next crop of World Cup competitors were making waves on the Nor-Am tour.
Today we’ll take a look at the top athletes from this past Nor-Am Cup season, which saw a full calendar with eight events spread over six locations (Apex Mountain, Deer Valley, Utah Olympic Park, Le Relais, Val St-Come and Stratton) across the USA and Canada. After two intensive months of competitions the 2022/23 Nor-Am Cup tour concluded this past week with the final aerials competitions going down in Le Relais (CAN) and moguls competitions wrapping up the season in Stratton (USA).
And remember, this season’s overall winners of each event earn themselves a guaranteed personal spot on the World Cup tour next season as well as a chance to compete in the World Cup finals next week in Almaty (KAZ), making this rundown something of a “Ones to Watch” list for the 2023/24 tour.
Aerials
USA’s Dani Loeb made a huge splash on the aerials cross World Cup in 2022/23, making her way to the big final right on the biggest stage at home event in Deer Valley, qualifying into the super final at for the very first time and finishing with her career’s best result on World Cup in fifth place.
However, her biggest successes came on the Nor-Am circuit, where the 21-year-old scored podiums all eight competitions and winning six of them to earn 720 points and a guaranteed spot on next year’s aerials World Cup tour where she seems set to develop into one of the top athletes on the entire tour.
“I’m super excited,” said Loeb after clinching the Nor-Am Cup title, “I’m really glad to secure my World Cup starts for next season and I’m thrilled to get to work and prepare for 2023/23 season.”
Loeb’s teammate Megan Smallhouse and Canada’s Charlie Fontaine finished the season in second and third, respectively, as USA took six of the top eight spots on the standings.
It was a tight battle for title over on the men’s side between Connor Curran (CAN) and Victor Primeau (CAN) Despite a massive effort by Primeau at the final event of the season on home soil in Le Relais, where he won both competitions, Curran managed to defeat his top position with two top-5 results and won the Nor-Am tour with 630 points. Consequently finishing with only 10 points short to Curran, Primeau wrapped up the season in second place, with his Canadian teammate Alec Hainault rounding out the men’s standing in third place.
“It feels amazing to win the Nor-Am tour,” said Connor, “We had two great days here in Le Relais and an amazing tour overall. It was a tough competition and the Canadians gave me a run for my money. It feels very good to finish on top.
Moguls
After a fourth-overall finish in 2021/22, 19-year-old Ali Macuga (USA) took it up a notch this season, earning 560 points on the strength of four victories and seven total podiums in eight competitions, while also getting her first taste of World Cup action a qualifying into finals in all but one event from nine competitions on tour so far in 2022/23.
Macuga’s teammate Kasey Hogg finished in second with Canada’s Ashley Koehler following up in third place.
“It feels so good,” said Macuga after scoring two podiums at the final events at Stratton, “After all this years of doing Nor-Am’s, finally being on top of the box feels very great. That’s what I’ve worked for and trained for all this year, putting my all so I’m so glad it worked out.”
“I’m really proud with my finals and my super final run, to be able to do my full and the cork and to get that full DD going. I’m super proud to stomp those runs. I have really close scores with the rest of the girls and it was a really good competition.”
Over on the men’s side a Nor-Am veteran Daniel Tanner of Canada finished as the most dominant man on tour with one victory and four top-3 finishes, earning 385 points and his first Nor-Am Cup title.
“I’m pretty stoked on winning the Nor-Am Cup”, said Tanner, “Traditionally I’m not so good at singles, so I’m really happy to have done well in singles this year and put some runs down.”
“It was definitely a high pressure day, because obviously we knew that the title was on the line. It was really tight between a bunch of guys, so it was a stressful day to say the least.”
“It was a rough start of the season for me, as I didn’t do so well in Apex, so it was definitely the season that built throughout the year. I really tried to stay in the process of it and be confident in myself. It was a good one.”
Behind Tanner finished his teammate Louis-David Chalifoux in second and Charlie Mickel (USA) in third.
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