<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Japanese riders dominated the last Big Air World Cup of the season in Steamboat (USA), with <strong>Miyabi Onitsuka</strong> winning the women’s Crystal Globe as <strong>Hiroto Ogiwara</strong> topped the men’s field.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Onitsuka was the first snowboarder to secure victory in Steamboat on Saturday as the 27-year-old topped the women’s field to claim her first World Cup victory since 2019.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Onitsuka also walked away with the discipline’s Globe after ending the 2025/26 season with 205 points thanks to her Steamboat victory and her third-place finish at the season opener in Secret Garden in November.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wearing the Cup leader’s yellow bib, 27-year-old Onitsuka began Saturday’s final with a backside double cork 1080 mute in her first run, for which she scored 83.00.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Teenagers <strong>Ally Hickman </strong>of Australia and <strong>Seungeun Yu </strong>of South Korea temporarily leapfrogged Onitsuka in the third run, before the Japanese rider dropped in with the final turn of the women’s competition and put down a switch frontside 1260 mute that netted her 91.00 points, pushing her score total to 174.00 and to the top of the leaderboard.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hickman was relegated to third place on 162.25 behind runner-up Yu’s (KOR) 173.25. For both Hickman and Yu, Saturday’s results were the best of their careers, with Hickman netting her first World Cup podium in her eighth competition, and Yu doing so in just her fifth.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Onitsuka’s victory on Saturday — her first in six years — comes a week after she finished fifth in Beijing following a heavy crash.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I can’t believe it. I spent a lot of time on the cab 12, so I’m happy,” said Onitsuka.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, U.S. snowboarding icon and two-time Olympic Slopestyle gold medalist <strong>Jamie Anderson</strong> finished sixth on Saturday as the 35-year-old made her World Cup comeback after retiring from competition in 2022.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the men’s field, Japan almost delivered a podium sweep as <strong>Hiroto Ogiwara</strong> (JPN) topped the final ahead of teammate <strong>Kira Kimura </strong>before <strong>Oliver Martin</strong> (USA) claimed the last podium spot ahead of fourth-placed <strong>Ryoma Kimata</strong> (JPN).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ogiwara secured victory thanks to his never-been-done-in-competition backside 1980 tailgrab in the third run for which the judges awarded him 94.75 – the highest-scored run of the final – to give the 20-year-old a winning total of 180.25.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The win is Ogiwara’s first World Cup victory since Beijing in 2024 and comes after the rider made headlines in early 2025 after winning X Games gold with the first 2340 landed in competition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I’m so happy to (have) won this. First time of the season. So happy, super happy,” he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hiroto’s happiness was heartbreak for his team-mate Kimura, who needed a victory on Saturday to surpass China’s<strong> Su Yiming</strong> on the Big Air Crystal Globe rankings. Instead, Kimura would fall just a single point short of that goal, with a two-run total of 179.25.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Martin’s performance on Saturday was highlighted by another never-been-done-in-competition trick, as the U.S. standout landed a frontstide triple cork 1620 mute pullback in his second run, helping him to a podium spot in his first World Cup start of the 2025/26 season. The 17-year-old wrapped up his 2024/25 season with two bronze medals in Big Air and Slopestyle at the Engadin 2025 FIS Snowboard World Championships, after earning his first career World Cup podium earlier in the season in Calgary.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite finishing outside of the top five on Saturday with seventh place, 16-year-old<strong> Yuto Kimura </strong>(JPN) - competing in just the second World Cup of his career - impressed judges and spectators alike with a frontside 1980 frontside grab in run two which earned him a score 93.25. The teenager was also the top qualifier coming into Saturday’s final.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With his two back-to-back victories in Secret Garden and Beijing and the one point difference between Ogiwara and Kira kimura, China’s Su Yiming added the 2025/26 Big Air Crystal Globe to his already impressive trophy case, despite not competing in Steamboat.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With Steamboat in the books, the final Olympic qualification opportunities for the big air and slopestyle riders come in the form of two January slopestyle World Cups in Aspen (USA) and Laax (SUI)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Olympic Qualification Quota list will be published on 19 January 2026, the day after competition wraps at the Laax Open.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Milano Cortina 2026 Big Air competition at Livigno Snow Park begins on 5 February.</div>