Mammoth Mountain SB slopestyle preview
Jan 07, 2022·Snowboard Park & Pipe
Due to some fairly obvious reasons, last season was just the second time in six years that we didn’t get to visit California for our annual bonanza of FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe World Cup action at the Mammoth Mountain Toyota U.S. Grand Prix.
However, despite the many challenges faced by organisers in the lead-up to this week’s competitions, we are back at Mammoth and hugely excited for a big week of action leading up to a heavy day of both slopestyle and halfpipe finals on Saturday, January 8.
There’s some weather forecast to be rolling into Mammoth on Friday afternoon, so qualification schedules have been shaken up. As it stands now, slopestyle qualies at Mammoth will being with the women at 9:45 on Thursday morning, followed by the men at 13:15. Women’s halfpipe qualifications will begin at 19:00 Thursday evening, while men’s halfpipe qualifications are slated for Friday morning.
Slopestyle finals are then slated to hit Mammoth’s Unbound Terrain Park at 9:30 Saturday morning, followed later on by halfpipe finals at 18:55 in a huge day of action that will also see freeski slopestyle finals taking place in the middle of the day.
SLOPESTYLE PREVIEW:
SADOWSKI-SYNNOTT & ANDERSON SET FOR FIRST WORLD CUP ACTION OF 2021/22
Hot on the heels of last weekend’s Calgary Snow Rodeo competition, Saturday’s Mammoth event will be the second of six slopestyle World Cups slated to go down in the 2021/22 season. And, with their wins in Calgary, it’s Japan’s Kokomo Murase and Sebastien Toutant of Canada currently sitting atop the World Cup standings.
While most of the big names from the Calgary competition made the trip down to California, a significant number of additional riders on the start list here in Mammoth means that this is shaping up to be one of the most star-studded events of the season thus far.
Two of the biggest names set to drop in on Mammoth for their first World Cups of the season come in at the top of the women’s list, as Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL) and Jamie Anderson (USA) are on the scene and ready to make their presences felt.
After taking gold at the Aspen 2021 World Championships to finish off her 2020/21 slopestyle season, Sadowski-Synnott picked up right where she left off to begin her 2021/22 campaign, putting down a dominant winning performance at Dew Tour just before Christmas. In the past 12 months Sadowski-Synnott has truly established herself as the one to beat in the women’s field, and could be tough to match by anybody this week.
If there’s one rider who can do it, however, it’s Anderson, and though she ended up finishing in seventh at the Dew Tour to begin her season, she was the most recent women’s slopestyle winner here in Mammoth two years ago, as well as the winner back in the 2016/17 season. With just over a month to go before she looks for an Olympic gold medal three-peat, expect Anderson to up the ante here in Mammoth as she looks to peak in Beijing.
Along with Anderson, US will also see Hailey Langland and Julia Marino dropping in on their first slopestyle World Cups of this season, and all should be looking strong come finals time.
The host squad will, however, be in tough against the Japanese team, with Calgary winner Murase backed up by Calgary runner-up Miyabi Onitsuka, as well as Reira Iwabuchi, who qualified fourth in Calgary but ended up finishing in seventh.
Up-and-coming teenagers Melissa Pepperkamp (NED) and Evy Poppe (BEL) both had their best-ever World Cup results in Calgary last week, as did Finland’s Carola Niemelae, so keep an eye on those three as well, along with the likes of Klaudia Medlova (SVK), Katie Ormerod (GBR) and Jasmine Baird (CAN).
DEFENDING OLYMPIC CHAMP GERARD LOOKING FOR THIRD MAMMOTH WIN
On the men’s side of things the US squad is adding some serious fire power for what is an important Olympic qualification event for their squad, with Red Gerard, Dusty Henricksen, Brock Crouch and Judd Henkes all on the scene after sitting out the Calgary comp.
Gerard in particular is one to keep an eye on, as he’s fresh off his second-straight Dew Tour win, and comes into this season’s Mammoth competition matching his teammate Anderson with two previous victories here.
Henkes also has two previous podiums here, while Henricksen grabbed his first career World Cup win here two years ago. And with Luke Winkelmann coming into Mammoth fresh off his first career World Cup podium in Calgary last weekend, you can expect the US snowboard team to be very much in the podium mix on Saturday.
Also bringing out the big guns once again is the Canadian team, with four of their top six riders locked in an epic battle for two spots on their Olympic team.
While Max Parrot and Mark McMorris have already locked down their Olympic spots, Sebastien Toutant, Darcy Sharpe, Liam Brearley and Frank Jobin are still fighting it out for the remaining two places. While Toutant’s win at Calgary last weekend has likely bumped him into the number three spot, nothing is set in stone yet for the Canadians.
Others to keep an eye on in men’s slope include Sebbe de Buck (BEL), who finished top in his heat in Calgary qualifying, the strong Japanese contingent featuring the likes of Takeru Otsuka, Ruki Tobita, Ryoma Kimata and explosive young gun Taiga Hasegawa, China’s Su Yiming, Rene Rinnekangas of Finland, and Markus Olimstad and Fridtjof Tischendorf of Norway.
While the persistent winds that often target Mammoth Mountain forced the cancellation of training on Tuesday, perfect weather greeted riders for Wednesday’s training sessions, and we’re hopeful that will carry forward for the qualification and finals competition phases.
WHERE TO WATCH
We’ll be updating this section on the web story closer to finals time. Find livestream links below and check back later for TV broadcast info.
QUICK LINKS:
Finals livestream (with geo restrictions)
Mammoth Mountain FIS data page (start lists, live scoring, results)
