Big Air to hit new venue at Beijing’s Shougang Park
Dec 11, 2019·Snowboard Park & Pipe
An early Christmas present is coming to snowboard fans around the world this weekend, in the form of the 2019 Air + Style Beijing FIS Snowboard World Cup, which is set to go down with qualifications on Thursday and finals under the lights at the brand-new Shougang Park permanent big air ramp, situated on the western outskirts of China’s capital city.
The Air + Style is one of the world’s premier snowboard competitions and has been such, in one form or the other, for over 25 years, with the first A+S competition going down in Innsbruck (AUT) back in 1993. While it’s been held at a multitude of venues around the world since then, Air + Style’s history in Beijing began in 2010, with its history as a FIS Snowboard World Cup beginning in 2017/18 at Beijing’s Workers’ Stadium.
This season marks a new chapter in Air + Style’s history, as the competition moves location to what is indisputably the world’s most beautiful and impressive big air venue. Formerly an industrial park on Beijing’s fringes, Shougang Park is being transformed into a centre of sport and culture ahead of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games - and the big air jump that will host Olympic competition in just over two year’s time is it’s centrepiece.
With such a setting - and the fact that this weekend’s competition is a first-time test run for the Olympics, as well as an Air + Style, as well as a FIS Snowboard World Cup - anticipation for Saturday’s finals is high, and an incredible collection of riders from around the world is on hand to battle for top spot.
Anna Gasser seeks three-peat
Preeminent among the women is Austria’s Anna Gasser, reigning Olympic big air gold medalist, winner of both of the previous two Air + Style Beijing big air World Cups and, arguably, the best big jump rider in the world on the women’s side. Though Gasser missed the season-opener in Cardrona (NZL), she returned to action with a third-place podium in Modena (ITA), and will be keen to climb back to the top step of the podium and pull of the Beijing three-peat this weekend.
However, when one looks to the field on hand, it becomes clear that that won’t be an easy task.
The first name that jumps off the start list is Jamie Anderson (USA), the two-time reigning Olympic slopestyle gold medalist, PyeongChang 2019 big air silver medalist, and one of the most no-holds-barred riders in the world. While Anderson’s return to the World Cup in Modena after a two-year absence didn’t quite go according to plan with a 19th-place finish, through training this week Anderson has one of the most technical and consistent of any rider in the women’s field, and the 29-year-old looks right at home on the big Beijing kicker.
Last year’s big air crystal globe winner Reira Iwabuchi (JPN) is fresh off a victory in Modena and riding well in Beijing, while her teammate Miyabi Onitsuka won last season’s slopestyle crystal globe and she, along with Anderson, has been one of the only riders in the women’s field consistently practicing double corks thus far.
PyeongChang 2018 big air silver medallist and Utah 2019 world champs slopestyle gold medalist Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL), PyeongChang slopestyle silver medalist Laurie Blouin (CAN), four-time X Games gold medalist and two-time world championships medalist Silje Norendal (NOR), seven-time X Games medalist Julia Marino (USA)…it’s basically a who’s who of the women’s snowboarding world on hand here in Beijing.
Thorgren, Corning, Parrot possible favourites in stacked men’s field
Over in the men’s side it’s just as gnarly.
Sven Thorgren (SWE) is back and ready to defend his Air + Style title from last year (his second career win at the legendary competition), and as long as a little illness experienced during the week doesn’t hold him back he should be considered one of the favourites to do just that. Thorgren is choosy about which contests he enters, but when he does put the bib on there’s few in the world that can match what he’s capable of at his best. That being said, most of those that can match Thorgren’s best are indeed on site here in Beijing.
Chris Corning (USA) started the season off with another stunning win in Cardrona, which he followed up with a third-place performance a few weeks ago in Modena. Winner of six crystal globes in his career across the big air, slopestyle, and snowboard park & pipe overall categories, Corning is already the most decorated World Cup freestyle snowboard rider of all time, all at the age of 20. When it comes time for competition, almost no one rises to the occasion as consistently as Corning.
Then there’s Max Parrot (CAN), who returned to competition at the X Games Norway in August after battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer for seven months and immediately set about winning that competition in what surely will go down as one of the greatest snowboarding comeback stories of all time. Parrot has been the most impressive rider in Beijing through the training sessions, and if he puts it all together on finals day he could be impossible to beat.
The fact that we’re talking about riders like Norway’s Staale Sandbech and Mons Roisland, or or Hiroake Kunitake and Ruki Tobita of Japan, or Judd Henkes of the USA, or Darcy Sharpe of Canada, or Kalle Jarvilehto of Finland, this late in the preview should give you a pretty good idea of the caliber of field we’re dealing with in Beijing this year. Any way you slice it, you know this weekend’s competition is going to be heavy, and you know it’s going to be fun to watch.
Thursday’s best-two-of-three run qualification in Beijing will get underway with the women at 11:15 local time, followed by heat one of the men at 14:15, and men’s heat two at 17:15. Saturday’s finals of eight women and 10 men, also best-two-of-three, is slated to begin at 19:30.
Quick links:
Beijing data paga (startlists, live scoring, results)
