Park & Pipe World Cup sails into Steamboat for big air action

Day 2 practice at Visa Big Air World Cup presented by Toyota at Steamboat Resort, Colorado, USA, December 2021. Image credit: / @mikedawsy / @ussnowboardteam

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

It’s been well over a month now since the 2021/22 FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe World Cup season opened at the Big Air Chur festival back in October, and the world’s best riders are no doubt champing at the bit to get back to action as the winter cranks into top gear up and we launch into the next two months of action in the race towards February’s Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

This week they’ll get to do just that, as we return to action for the second and final big air World Cup of the season at the Visa Big Air presented by Toyota at Colorado’s Steamboat Resort.

Though Steamboat has hosted FIS Freestyle Skiing competitions in the past, this weekend will mark the first time that the FIS Snowboard World Cup has been hosted by the resort. And while above-average temperatures through the early part of November have caused some stress on the organisers and builders here in northern Colorado, recent colder temps and an all-hands-on-deck effort mean that the big jump is in great shape and all the pieces are in place for an excellent competition.

Qualifications at Steamboat are slated to take place on Thursday beginning with the men at 9:35 local time, followed by finals on Saturday morning starting at 9:30. TV broadcast information for Saturday’s finals will be confirmed in the coming days, so check back here later on, or follow our social media channels for updates.

WHO TO WATCH - WOMEN

The season-opener in Chur saw young Japanese ripper Kokomo Murase claiming the victory in impressive fashion, stomping a backside double cork 1080 and a frontside double cork 900 for her first career World Cup win. Murase famously became the youngest-ever X Games big air winner when she claimed top spot at the Norway competition in 2018 at just 13 years old. Now 17, she’s looking strong in the early-going of 2021/22 and - as her groundbreaking double cork 1260 at the 2018 X Games can attest to - it’s certain she’ll have plenty more to give as the season rolls on.

Behind Murase at the season’s first competition was the one and only Anna Gasser (AUT), as the reigning Olympic big air gold medallist dealt with the tricky Chur jump by laying down a couple of her safety tricks to cruise to a podium. Gasser’s cab dub 900 + backside 720 jump combo from Chur isn’t really the C or even D grade of what she’s capable of, which just goes to prove once again that the 30-year-old Austrian is operating at a level that few other riders in the world can touch.

Jasmine Baird (CAN) rounded out the podium in Chur in third place, grabbing her second career World Cup top-3 while finishing just ahead of her teammate Brooke Voigt. With Baird, Voigt and reigning big air World Champion Laurie Blouin all set for action this week, the Canadians have a trio of riders capable of making some noise in Saturday’s finals.

Their neighbours to the south will have something to say about that, however, as the US squad will be riding heavy into their home event with the likes of Hailey Langland and Julia Marino flying the Stars and Stripes and looking for big results in what is an important Olympic qualification event for their team especially.

The southern hemisphere gang represented by Tess Coady of Australia and Cool Wakishima of New Zealand, while Reira Iwabuchi and Miyabi Onitsuka of Japan, Germany’s Annika Morgan, and Katie Ormerod of Great Britain should also be on your watch list for the women this weekend.

WHO TO WATCH - MEN

The men’s contest in Chur was a bit of a weird one, as changing conditions on the jump throughout the day meant that many riders had a tough time putting down the 1800s and triple corks we were expecting after seeing so much explosive footage coming out of the pre-season training camps in the lead-up to the first World Cup competition or 2021/22.

However, every rider in the finals at Chur had to deal with the same jump, and it was Switzerland’s Jonas Boesiger who dealt with it best, landing a backside 16 and frontside triple 1440 for his first career World Cup win in front of a massive home crowd of 15,000 people.

Behind Boesiger it was the inimitable Rene Rinnekangas (FIN) riding to his first career World Cup podium, as he was the only rider other than Boesiger to put down a clean 16 in Chur. There’s probably no other rider who exudes the pure joy of snowboarding the way Rinnekangas does, and to see him earning his first World Cup top-3 after grabbing World Championships bronze in slopestyle at Aspen last season is a trend a lot of people would like to see continue.

Swedish star Sven Thorgren rounded out the men’s Chur podium in third, dropping a last-hit backside 1440 to melon to muscle his way onto his fifth career World Cup podium. Unfortunately Thorgren won’t be on the scene in Steamboat, and with one of the most consistent big air competitors in the world opting out, opportunity awaits for somebody else this weekend.

As you would expect, Team USA will be coming through with a whole lotta firepower on home soil, with the likes of Chris Corning, Red Gerard, Dusty Henricksen, Kyle Mack, Judd Henkes, Luke Winkelmann AND Brock Crouch all on the start list for Thursday’s qualifications. It’s an absurd amount of talent on display, and should give the host squad a better-than-good chance of landing a podium spot or two on Saturday.

Other nations looking strong ahead of Steamboat include the Canadians, with their veteran, elite 1-2-3 punch of reigning big air World Champion Mark McMorris, reigning big air Olympic gold medallist Sebastien Toutant and six-time X Games big air winner Max Parrot all quite clearly capable of being the best of the best on the right day.

The Japanese meanwhile will be coming through with Takeru Otsuka, Ruki Tobita and Hiroaki Kunitake, while the Norwegians will see 2021 X Games big air winner Marcus Kleveland, Mons Roisland and Fridtjof Tischendorf all dropping in. Leon Vockensperger of Germany, Yiming Su of China, and Niklas Mattsson of Sweden are just a few of the other men who could be in the finals mix in Steamboat.

WHERE TO WATCH

Check back with this story on our website for international broadcasters and live-streaming links as soon as they’re available, or stay tuned to our social media channels for info as we receive it.

QUICK LINKS

• Visa Big Air presented by Toyota at Steamboat official webpage

• Steamboat FIS data page (start lists, live scoring, results)

• Photos (updated throughout the week)

• Big air World Cup standings

• Full Park & Pipe World Cup calendar

SEASON TEASER VIDEO - please see below

Press Release Source: Chad Buchholz / www.fis-ski.com/en/snowboard

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