Big air World Cup finals coming up in Kreischberg
Jan 12, 2023·Snowboard Park & Pipe
The 2022/23 FIS Snowboard big air World Cup campaign comes to a close this week in Austria, with the first crystal globes of the winter set to be awarded at the Kreischberg big air World Cup on Saturday, 14 January.
The site of the 2015 FIS Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships, Kreischberg has long been a host of FIS Snowboard World Cup action, beginning with snowboard cross way back in the 1996/97 season. The first big air World Cup in Kreischberg, meanwhile, went down almost exactly 21 years ago, in January of the 2001/02 season.
Despite low snowfall across much of Europe so far this season, the jump in Kreischberg is looking excellent, and with most of the riders still in the big air crystal globe hunt on hand this week it’s shaping up to be a exceptional big air World Cup season finale in Styria.
As it stands right now, men’s qualifications in Kreischberg will be taking place on Friday beginning at 9:50 CET, followed by women’s qualifications on Saturday at 11:00. Women’s and men’s finals will then be going down under the lights beginning at 18:00.
JAPAN’S GLOBE HOPES STRONG WITH IWABUCHI AND MURASE LEADING THE WAY
On the women’s side of things it’s the heavy-hitting Japanese duo of Reira Iwabuchi and Kokomo Murase leading the way into the big air grand finale, with Iwabuchi atop the World Cup standings with 160 points, and Murase not far back with 122.
With women’s big air World Cup co-leader Jasmine Baird of Canada not making the trip to Kreischberg for this week, there are just a handful of other riders with a realistic shot at the women’s big air crystal globe, with the likes of Evy Poppe (BEL), rising star Mari Fukada (JPN) and Melissa Peperkamp (NED) leading the way.
However, with Iwabuchi and Murase both two of the most odds-on consistent podium threats in snowboarding, it’s looking pretty unlikely we see one of the challengers leapfrog to the top for this season’s trophy. Iwabuchi has a win and a third place finish in her two big air starts so far this season, and while Murase has been held off the podium thus far in 2022/23, her first-place result in qualifying at Copper Mountain (USA) just before the holiday break shows that last season’s Park & Pipe overall crystal globe winner is ready for a breakout.
If we’re speaking of challengers to the Japanese duo for the women’s win in Kreischberg this weekend, it’s in the roster of riders who don’t have a realistic shot at the crystal globe where things get really interesting.
First we need to talk about Austria’s own Anna Gasser, who is mathematically still in the globe hunt with 80 points from her second place finish in Chur to open the season, but would need a win combined with hugely disappointing results for both Iwabuchi and Murase in order for that to happen.
The two-time reigning big air Olympic gold medallist, Gasser will be hungry for her first home-soil victory since the 2016/17 season when she won the Kreischberg slopestyle World Cup. Gasser is - quite obviously - hugely popular here in Austria, so the pressure will be on, but if there’s anything the 31-year-old has shown over the course of her career, it’s the ability to rise to the biggest occasions. With 22 World Cup podiums and 10 victories, along with her Olympic golds and myriad other successes, there’s almost no one in the world who boasts the pedigree of Gasser.
Then there’s the southern hemisphere contingent, as Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL) and Tess Coady (AUS) are both on hand and ready to roll in their first international competition laps of the season.
Last time we saw Sadowski-Synnott in the bib she was scoring some heavy hardware at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, opening snowboard competition there in China with an all-time-great gold medal performance in the slopestyle, and then finishing things off with a silver in big air. Throw in her proven backcountry prowess as exhibited at the Natural Selection tour over the past couple of winters and you’ve got one of the best all-around snowboarders in the world.
Coady won bronze to join Sadowski-Synnott on the Beijing 2022 slopestyle podium, before finishing off the World Cup season with a fourth place finish in Silvaplana (SUI). While the 22-year-old has five slopestyle World Cup podiums to her name, she’s still searching for her first on in big air, and this weekend in Kreischberg we could very well see that happen based on what she’s been throwing down in training.
GUSELI LOOKS TO HOLD OFF CORNING FOR FIRST CAREER CRYSTAL GLOBE
For the men, it’s Valentino Guseli (AUS) holding a narrow four-point lead atop the big air standings over Chris Corning (USA), as the 17-year-old Australian tries to hold off the all-time co-leader in Park & Pipe crystal globes through the final competition of the season.
With his first career World Cup win coming at the Edmonton Style Experience big air in December, top-10s at the Big Air Chur and the Copper Mountain U.S. Grand Prix in halfpipe, and expectations that he’ll also be riding in every slopestyle and halfpipe event from here on out this season, Guseli will be tough to beat in the Park & Pipe overall globe race. However, whether he’s able to close it out and take the BA trophy this weekend remains to be seen.
As for Corning, he’s currently tied with Janne Korpi with seven career World Cup titles (three slopestyle, two big air and two overall). However, all of those triumphs came before his 21st birthday, and up until the Edmonton competition it had been almost three years since his last World Cup big air podium.
Corning’s return to the upper-echelon of big air riders this season has been an electric one, and with the way he’s riding combined with the fact that he’s one of the most experienced, talented and driven competitors in all of snowboarding, Corning has to have Guseli feeling the heat right now.
Though current big air third overall rider Marcus Kleveland (NOR) is not on hand in Kreischberg this week, there are handful of others further down the list who are still in the globe hunt, including the likes of Takeru Otsuka, Ruka Tobita and Hiraoki Kunitake of Japan, Finland’s Kalle Karvilehto, and Jonas Boesiger of Switzerland.
It almost goes without saying at this point that the Japanese team is deep and supremely talented, with the trio mentioned above joined by explosive up-and-comers like Taiga Hasegawa and Hiroto Ogiwara. Really, it wouldn’t be surprising to see half the men’s finals field up of Japanese riders.
However, with Dusty Henricksen (USA), Leon Vockensperger (GER), Niek van der Velden (NED), Lyon Farrell (NZL), Nicolas Huber (SUI) and Ian Matteoli (ITA) just a few of the names amongst the a very strong field of fifty on hand here in Kreischberg, there’s really no easy path to the finals for anyone on the men’s side of things.
Stay tuned to our social media channels for where-to-watch TV broadcast and streaming info, or check back to this story on our website for updates on Friday afternoon.
QUICK LINKS
FIS Snowboard big air World Cup Kreischberg data page (start lists, live scoring, results)
