Laax Open is probably the biggest gathering of [comp] skiers and snowboarders on the planet. It all went down this weekend, and the final event was Ski Slopestyle. The weather has been up and down all week, but for finals today it was pretty good, with the course running fast and plenty of blue dye on the course to counter the flat light. The setup was huge and, as ever, one of the more unique courses on the calendar, with two shark fin options, a big quarter pipe after the jumps, and a very combo-able final rail feature.

The runs were judged a little differently from some events, with each feature getting judged out of 10, and then added to an overall impression score, which takes in how the run was composed and executed.

Semi-finals went down in some marginal conditions but a stacked field of riders made it through. There weren't too many surprises in qualis, except for Liu Mengting, a Chinese athlete we've never heard of making finals. And popping up out of the forgotten past on the men's side was Henry Sildaru, also made his first World Cup Final.

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Women:

Run 1:

The first to put a run down was actually Liu Mengting after crashes from Tess Ledeux and Rell Harwood. She stomped a dub 10 on the final jump into a 5 on the pipe hit. Jay Riccomini stomped a super steezy run, buttery two continuing two up top, huge alleyoop flair on QP too. Mathilde Gremaud then lifted the roof on both the commentary booth with an incredible run. Lip 2 cont 2 and a switch 2 pop japan out on the first rain, dub 10 out of the shark fin, switch dub 10 on the final jump... insane. The only weak spot was an alleyoop mute on the QP but the K-Fed on the bottom rail (part of the same feature scoring-wise) helped. Eileen answered with a solid run, but a 9 buick on the shark fin and a forward dub 10 on the jump weren't really enough to challenge Mathilde. A solid provisional second though.

Run 2:

Rell Harwood had a super unfortunate ski release on the first rail but stomped a beaut of a dub 10 on the way down. Jay put it down again, cleaning up the grabs on his jumps and everything was perfect. Only 5s on the jumps but it was a super nice run to watch. The score was bumped up a few points for being cleaner but he stayed in provisional third with a chasm to Eileen ahead. Sarah Hoefflin put it down clean on run two, with the gap switch two pretz two up top, shark fin cork five, and switch air on the QP the highlights. Only enough for fourth. Mathilde couldn't match her incredible first run, leaving the door open for Eileen. She cleaned things up a lot but didn't really up the tricks too much. It wasn't enough to overtake Mathilde though. That left the podium as it stood at the beginning of run 2, with Jay Riccomini taking bronze and making history as the first-ever transgender medalist in a ski world cup. Huge props to him, a beautiful moment!

Results:

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Men:

Run 1:

Cody LaPlante came out of the gate firing with a nosesdown 4 on and an insane nosebutter dub 12 on the shark fin. Unfortunately, he came a cropper further down. Isak Davidsson and Mork put down some cool runs, bio 10 on the shark fin from the former, and a switch dub 14 to switch dub 16 jump line from the latter but both had little bobbles on the pyramid feature before the final rail. Fabian Boesch put it down super clean run, capped his grabs, and spinning all ways, but only scored just above Mark H. Andri put down a heater up to the final feature, with a 4p2 up top and switch dub misty 10 on the final jump. I would argue he came off a smidge early on this 2p2 at the bottom but it was still clean. Max Moffat put down one of the coolest slope runs I've seen in a long time. Switch dub 9 true nose down the pipe was a beauty, and his style was next level. Birk put together a super clean run but not particularly exciting, he did go dub 1440, dub 1620, switch dub 18 on the jumps though, and took the lead. Alex Hall had a trademark super creative run including a switch butter lip 2 up top and a nosebutter dub 10 on the shark fun, but he did come off a smidge early on the first rail.

Run 2:

Konnor Ralph put one down in run two, switch 4 onto the waterfall, 4 on 6 out on the goalpost, solid jumps (16 to switch 14), and switch 7 in the QP... there was a lot to like but some small bobbles. Isak cleaned it up for run two, greasing his rail tricks this time and stalling on the pyramid for about a minute but some of the tricks were just too 'stock'. Mork had a beautiful switch 2 backslide continuing two on the goalpost but couldn't put the run down. Andri put down a heater again but again, the last rail got him, missing the p2p. The booth was calling it the heartbreaker for a reason, which is extra wild because it was a basic fat tube. It did do enough to bump him above Max Moffat though...briefly. Max absolutely laced it on the second time of asking. Cleaned up the switch 4 up top, put down the dub bio 14 japan super nice. Enough to marginally overtake Birk with style for days. Henry Sildaru went clean and technical but his jumps, two 12s, weren't quite enough to challenge the top spots. Birk put it down again perfectly though, the switch dub 18 was crazy deep. He took the lead right back with only A-Hall & Mac to go. Mac put down a dub 9 on the shark, switch 14 with the best landing I've ever seen (think Wallisch), switch dub 16? (I think) stale on the 'money booter'... insane. It was 19 on the first run... Only enough for second. A-Hall laced too, nosebutter dub 10 on the shark, dub 10 bringback on the 1st jump, huge switch 7 tweaked mute on the qp... only enough for fourth. Birk wins again, Max gets third.

Results:

*Note this article was written live and is still being edited*

Replay available soon here:

https://www.redbull.com/int-en/live/laax-open-2024-freeski-slopestyle