Mammoth Mountain set for another double FIS Freeski World Cup event
Mar 07, 2019·Freeski Park & Pipe
The FIS Freeski World Cup moves to the final location of the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix tour this week for another pair of the World Cup events set to take place at the premier Californian resort of Mammoth Mountain. The halfpipe competition is slated to go down on Friday, March 8, with the slopestyle event following up on Sunday, March 10.
No stranger to hosting top-level winter sports athletes, Mammoth has long served as a training ground for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association's top skiers and snowboarder, providing a world-class halfpipe, slopestyle and big air training ground for America’s best.
With a stacked field of riders all on hand here in Mammoth, a perfectly cut 22-foot superpipe, and an always-progressive slopestyle course, the FIS Freeski World Cup tour is ready for another exciting week of competitions.
After several days of the sort of heavy snowfall that makes the Mammoth Lakes area famous while also making any sort of competition action essentially impossible, athletes, organisers and officials are looking forward to finally getting down to business at the Mammoth Mountain on Thursday, where clearing weather should allow halfpipe qualification runs to take place beginning at 13:10 PST.
Halfpipe World Cup set to wrap up at Mammoth
With the final FIS Freeski halfpipe World Cup competition set to wrap up an exciting season it’s Rachel Karker (CAN) who is leading the standing on the ladies’ side with 210 points after three events so far in 2018/19.
Karker placed second both in Secret Garden and Calgary and will be looking to add another solid performance at Mammoth while aiming to take home the crystal globe once the finals go down on Friday.
But it’s all shaping up to be a tight battle for the overall victory between a couple of riders with Zhang Kexin (CHN) also in the mix with 196 points as well as the defending World Cup champion from last season Cassie Sharpe (CAN) following up in third with 180 points.
Also keep an eye on the US Freeski Team with the likes of Brita Sigourney, Maddie Bowman or Annalise Drew ready to step it up in from of the home crowd, as well as the brand new 2019 halfpipe world champion Kelly Sildaru (EST) who will be looking to add another victory to her record and wrap up the halfpipe World Cup season on a high.
Moving over to the men’s side Nico Porteous (NZL) is entering the competition at Mammoth leading the ranking with 210 points, with Simon d’Artois (CAN) in second with 176 points and David Wise (USA) currently sitting in third with 160 points.
Moving down the starting list also watch out for the entire continent of top-tier US athlete with the 2019 world champion Aaron Blunck, Birk Irving, Hunter Hess and aforementioned David Wise, all ready to play the cards among themselves and repeat the US men’s podium sweep from 2017 and 2018.
Add to the mix the likes of Noah Bowman (CAN), Thoms Krief (FRA), and Birk Ruud (NOR) just to name a few, and with crystal globes still up for grabs by a handful of riders it’s looking like the 2018/19 halfpipe World Cup finals at Mammoth have just all ingredients necessary to cap off the season in style.
The qualifications are slated to get underway on Thursday, March 8 starting at 13:10 PST with the finals scheduled for Friday, March 10 at 13:00.
Slopestyle start lists chock-full of big names.
The level of competition will be also up to the ceiling in the slopestyle competition with almost 80 athletes ready to drop in and fight for the World Cup points at the penultimate stop of the 2018/19 season.
In the ladies’ event watch out for the 2018 Olympic Champion Sarah Hoefflin (SUI), as well as Mathilde Gremaud (SUI), Kelly Sildaru (EST), or Isabel Atkin (GBR). The US Freeski Team also has a plenty of reason to be excited about the upcoming competition at Mammoth, with the likes of Maggie Voisin, Julia Krass and Caroline Clair set to showcase their best riding on home soil.
Over on the men’s side take into account the current World Cup number one and two Max Moffat (CAN) and Oliver Magnusson (SWE), who will face a strong competition from the US top guns of Nicholas Goepper, Gus Kenworthy and Colby Stevenson.
Add to that an impressive field of international riders with Henrik Harlaut (SWE), Oscar Wester (SWE), Ferdinand Dahl (NOR), Teal Harle (CAN) or Fabian Boesch (SUI), also on hand at Mammoth Mountain this week, and it looks like it’s anyone’s game to fight for top spots on one of the best courses we’ve seen so far in 2018/19.
The slopestyle qualifications are set to go down on Saturday, March 9, with the starting time still to be announced. The finals are scheduled for Sunday at 9:30 PST.
WATCH LIVE
HALFPIPE: ORF Sport + (Austria), CBC Sports Streaming (Canada), Eurosport player (Europe), Eurosport 1 (Asia/Pacific), Polsat Sport Extra (Poland), streaming on NBCSports.com (USA).
SLOPESTYLE: to be announced
QUICK LINKS
Mammoth Mountain FIS data page (event programme, start lists, live scoring, results)
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