Halfpipe stars set for their turn at Laax Open
Jan 15, 2020·Snowboard Park & Pipe
After three straight days of slopestyle action it’s finally time for the halfpipe riders to get their turn in the spotlight, with women’s and men’s semifinals set to take to perhaps the world’s best superpipe on Thursday at the Laax Open 2020 FIS Snowboard World Cup.
Action from training in Laax has been nothing short of tantalizing, with riders from top to bottom of the startlists thoroughly enjoying their time in the perfectly cut pipe under bluebird skies and spring-like temperatures.
Mastro on a mission
Perhaps no one has been a better example of this than the USA’s Maddie Mastro, who arrived in Laax as a potential favourite and whose stock has risen considerably since her arrival based on social media posts showing the 19-year-old stomping the heck out of 4m double cripplers all week.
Mastro become the first women’s rider to land a double invert in international pipe competition at last year’s Burton US Open. Should she become the first to land the trick in a World Cup event this week it’s going to be nigh-on impossible for any other rider to top her.
There will be challengers, though.
With a win and a runner-up in two competitions this season, China’s Liu Jiayu currently leads the 2019/20 halfpipe World Cup standings, and with a win two seasons ago in Laax the 27-year-old knows what it takes to walk away on top at the famed venue. A World Cup veteran since 2007 and the PyeongChang 2018 halfpipe silver medallist, Liu remains one of the world’s very best.
Spain’s Quaralt Castellet sits just behind Liu on the World Cup standings, and the 30-year-old is sure to be looking for redemption after failing to make finals at the last halfpipe World Cup in Secret Garden (CHN). With podiums at both of the last two Opens, Castellet too knows what it takes to get the job done in Laax.
Five-time halfpipe crystal globe winner, two-time world champion, and two-time podium athlete in Laax Cai Xuetong, Switzerland’s own Verena Rohrer, and Kurumi Imai are also ones to watch on the ladies’ side.
James train rolls back into Laax
Jumping over to the men, we start with the rider who everyone starts with when talking about halfpipe snowboarding these days, as Scotty James comes into this weekend’s competition as the most dominant rider on earth and the standard to which all others are judged.
Last year’s Laax Open victor, James is now eight wins into a streak that includes World Cup, world championships, X Games, Dew Tour, and US Open competitions, and has proven time and again that when he’s on his game he is, seemingly, untouchable.
The one rider who knows that better than anyone at this stage in the World Cup season is the Japanese dynamo Yuto Totsuka who has finished second to James in both of this season’s World Cup competitions, as well as at the Utah 2019 world championships.
Totsuka is perhaps the most explosive rider on tour, a two-time reigning crystal globe winner who consistently sends stratospherically large airs from start-to-finish of his runs, with dizzying spin counts and grab variations, always carried out on the edge between disaster and glory. And every event in which he plays second fiddle to James, Totsuka gets hungrier for top spot.
One of the more intriguing names on the entry list is Iouri Podladtchikov, the Sochi 2014 Olympic gold medallist and Stoneham 2013 world champion. Winner of the 2018 Laax Open, Podladtchikov suffered an ankle injury last season’s Utah 2019 world championships, and this will be the first we’ve seen of him in action since then. He, along with his Swiss teammates Pat Burgener, Jan Scherrer and David Habluetzel, represent strong podium hopes for the host squad.
Toby Miller, Chase Blackwell, and Ryan Wachendorfer are currently the three top-ranked World Cup riders on a nine-deep US team her in Laax, with 19-year-old Miller especially suited to the monster Laax halfpipe. However, nearly every rider on the US men’s team has finals potential this weekend.
And finally, watch out for dark horse contender Andre Hoefflich of Germany, the 22-year-old who turned heads in both the Copper Mountain (USA) and Secret Garden competitions earlier this season and seems poised to reach his first World Cup podium sooner rather than later.
Thursday’s semifinals at the Laax Open 2020 FIS Snowboard World Cup get under way with the women at 10:15 CET, followed by the men at 12:30. Saturday night’s finals, meanwhile, are slated to close out one of snowboarding’s biggest weeks under Laax’s lights at 17:30, where 100,000 CHF in prize money will be on the line.
QUICK LINKS:
Laax data page (start lists, livescoring, results)
