Cover: Bucholz/FIS
As has become a tradition, Stubai Zoo hosted the first Slopestyle World Cup of the season. And as has become a tradition, the weather all week has been, not to put too fine a point on it, fucked. Qualifications were bumped and bumped all week until finally the whole event went down in one combined quali/final shootout on the final day
The conditions on finals day, weather wise were pretty on-point for the men. Sun, relatively low wind but there were definitely some snow snakes around left by all the snow during the week and off the 'racing line' it was still a pow day. It's always good to see slopestyle back though. Unfortunately for the women, the wind picked up and that made for a much tougher time... which was a little strange given that the women usually drop first.
Men's: Replay & Recap (use VPN to non-EU or North America (eg Argentina):
On the men's side it was somewhat chaotic, with pulling all athlete's into a defacto two run final meaning we suddenly had 60 finalists for the judges to deal with. It's a challenge at the best of times and this felt pretty next level. The first run saw an opening salvo from many of the usual suspects. Mac Forehand, Matej & in particular Andri Ragettli threw down some absolute hammers. A perfectly capped dub 16 cuban was his highlight moment and it left him on top of the leaderboard at the end of run one.
The second run saw some big runs go down and a real shakeup of the provisional podium. Birk Ruud came through with a solid run, moving him into provisional third as did Luca Harrington, who was unfortunate to miss out on a podium spot. His switch dub 16 to dub 10 pullback was a great combo and the screaming seaman out of the cannon was a nice touch. But it was Colby Stevenson once again who's nosebutter prowess (nb dub 16 stale on the first jump and nb 4 onto the final rail) reigned supreme. Tormod Frostad came through hot on the final run with a switch dub bio 16 and a creative rail line selection (wallie from the pyramid to the down) too, giving him third spot.
Results:
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Women's Recap (can't find a replay sorry):
Twenty-eight women of the world's best female skiers showed up to throw down in Stubai and much like the men, all of them were taken through to a hybrid qualifying/finals. Unfortunately, the wind picked up a LOT for the women's runs making things very challenging. Too big on the first jump and knuckle on the second was the theme. Abi Harrigan was the first to put down a clean run top to bottom and that was enough for a lead for some time. Mathilde put down two sevens and a 2on2out to switch2p2 combo on the rails, enough for a solid lead. Anni Karava went provisional second styling her way down the course but with a 360 it was never going to hold. Megan Oldham threw the first dub of the day but couldn't hold it down on the rails. Marin Hamill is back, which is good to see and a smooth, clean run, including a beaut of a switch to switch on the final rail was enough for 80 and left her second.
The second run saw more of the same. The wind was chopping and changing, so we saw overshoots, undershoots and everything in between. Sarah Hoefflin tidied things up, with a super nice switch 7 to switch 5 combo on the jumps. It was a little loose on the final rail but enough for second. Mathilde skipped the second run, probably a wise call in the circumstances. Anni K stepped it up to a switch 9 on the first jump, but a 3 on the second killed her score. She improved but not by enough for a podium. Megan Oldham sent if for the moon but couldn't hold the third gucci landing in a row. Tess Ledeux put one down at the death. Two 9s bumped the bar on the jumps and clean rails to take the lead. A butt check on the switch bio 9 was questionable, but nobody had a properly perfect run.
Results:
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