White and Hirano headline halfpipe season-opener in Copper Mountain
Dec 11, 2021·Snowboard Park & Pipe
The 2021/22 FIS Snowboard halfpipe World Cup season is set to get underway this week at the USA’s Copper Mountain Resort, where the Toyota US Grand Prix will be the first of this winter’s three World Cup pipe competitions.
We’ve already put out an in-depth preview looking at the events, the top riders, and some of the main storylines to follow throughout the 2021/22 halfpipe World Cup season, and you should check that out HERE.
Here we’ll take a closer look at the Copper competition, in particular, below…
Qualifications in Copper Mountain will be going down on Thursday, December 8th, with the women kicking things off at 9:40 local time, followed by the men at noon. Because of some weather forecast to blow in in the afternoon, both the women’s and men’s qualies will feature two heats being judged in double-up format in order to take advantage of the weather window. The top four women and the top five men from each heat will be punching their ticket through to the finals, which are set to start at 12:00 on Saturday.
This will be the FIS Snowboard halfpipe World Cup’s seventh visit to the US Grand Prix at Copper Mountain, with the first World Cup competition at the venue going down back in 2012/13 and the most recent edition taking to the Copper pipe in the 2019/20 season.
The Copper superpipe is the only one in North America at this point in the season, and it’s construction is a testament to the commitment of the organisers here at the resort who battled through some adverse early-season weather conditions to put together a pipe that has seen nearly unanimous praise from riders throughout training this week.
The host US squad has enjoyed an incredible amount of success at Copper Mountain over the years, earning 25 out of a possible 42 podiums in the event’s history.
The legend Kelly Clark (USA) leads all riders in Copper halfpipe history with two wins and four podiums total, while the likes of Chloe Kim (USA), Scotty James (AUS) and Taylor Gold (USA) also hold two Copper victories to their names.
However, with Clark long retired from competition and neither Kim nor James on hand for this week’s action, it’s down to Mr. Gold if we’re going to see someone claim an elusive third Copper victory.
Queralt Castellet (ESP) was the last women’s winner here in Copper back in 2019/20, where she was followed up by Liu Jaiyu, and both can be counted on to be in the finals mix come Saturday. Liu’s Chinese teammate Cai Xuetong has two podiums at the venue, meanwhile, and as the last women’s halfpipe crystal globe winner is a decent podium bet as well.
For the men on hand this week, one rider for certain to keep an eye on is Ayumu Hirano (JPN), the only Japanese winner in the Copper Mountain event’s history after claiming top spot back in 2017/18.
A two-time Olympic silver medallist, Hirano is set to drop in on his and his first major international competition since finishing second at PyeongChang 2019, making this his first top-tier event in almost four years. However, despite his extended break away from the action, signs suggest that he, along with his teammates Yuto Totsuka and Ruka Hirano, is one asset in the very real possibility of a Japanese podium sweep this week…but, you should check out the season preview linked above for more info on that.
Switzerland’s Patrick Burgener is also a past Copper winner who’s on hand this week, dropping in on his first competition since blowing his knee last season. Where exactly he’s at performance-wise remains to be seen, but seeing him stomping some lofty doubles in training was encouraging.
Last, but most certainly not least, we come to the man that needs no introduction - Shaun White.
White returned to competition last season at the Aspen World Cup for the first time since winning his third Olympic gold medal at PyeongChang 2018, and he promptly proceeded to reassert himself amongst the snowboard world’s elite with a fourth-place finish.
He’s now committed himself in a bid to earn what would be an almost unfathomable fifth career Olympic spot. Though at 35 he’s literally twice the age of some of his competitors this week, White proved with his performance in Aspen last March that the fire within still burns brightly and that his skills remain sharp.
White has one career podium here in Copper, a third-place finish at the same 2017/18 competition won by his longtime rival Ayumu Hirano. Were he able to once again hit the top-3 this Saturday, the living legend would add another epic chapter to one of the most incredible stories that snowboarding has ever known.
WHERE TO WATCH LIVE SNOWBOARD:
EUROSPORT PLAYER, PEACOCK, CBC SPORTS STREAMING, VIAPLAY, VIASAT SPORT, ARENA, JSPORT 1, ESPN STAR+, VSPORT3, V SPORT HOCKEY
QUICK LINKS:
Livestream for finals (with geo restrictions)
Copper Mountain World Cup data page (start lists, live scoring, results)
