Season preview: 2019/20 FIS Freeski Halfpipe World Cup
Dec 10, 2019·Freeski Park & Pipe
The 2019/20 FIS Freeski Halfpipe World Cup resumes this weekend in Copper Mountain (USA), the second of five stops on a tour that this season began in Cardrona (NZL), and will now see the world’s best halfpipe riders compete in the USA, China, and Canada over the next three months. With no world championships or Olympic Winter Games on the docket for this season the World Cup looms even larger in importance, with the crystal globes for the season’s best riders looming on the horizon as 2019/20’s ultimate prizes.
After the Cardrona competition it’s currently Zhang Kexin of China and the USA’s Birk Irving sitting atop the World Cup standings after their wins in the southern hemisphere, but there’s still plenty of action left to go before we find out who walks away on top at the 2019/20 World Cup season’s end.
Venues (click for more info):
Cardrona (NZL), Sep 6-7, 2019 - Cardrona Alpine resort, a friendly and relaxed winter resort located between Wanaka and Queenstown on the Southern Island of New Zealand, boasts a monster pipe of the Olympic size that attracts a huge number of pros for their training reps when most people from the northern hemisphere are hanging out on the beach and working on their tans. With one of the best pipes in the world, the all-around good Kiwi vibes, and the backdrop of the Winter Games NZ adding extra hype, it’s no wonder that Cardrona Alpine Resort once again hosted the FIS Freeski World Cup season's kick-off for 2019/20.
Copper Mountain (USA), Dec 12-14, 2019 - One of the most important resorts for the star-studded US Freeski team, Copper Mountain has been a stalwart World Cup host since the 2012/13 season, and the resort’s halfpipe has consistently proven to be amongst the best in the world. With familiarity comes strength, and the US team has never failed to put at least one of their athletes on both the men’s and the ladies’ podiums in every season of halfpipe World Cup action at Copper, so the rest of the world is going to need to bring their best to battle the hosts at this season’s Land Rover US Grand Prix.
Secret Garden (CHN), Dec 20-22, 2019 - After Copper it’s a hop across the pond to China for what will be the third iteration of the Secret Garden halfpipe World Cup - a stop on the tour that grows in importance every year that we move close to the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. This is because, as you might have guessed, Secret Garden is slated to be the host resort for halfpipe and slopestyle competition at the next OWG, and there’s no denying that familiarity and experience in the pipe upon which that the whole world will be gazing in three years’ time can only be of benefit to the riders hoping to shine on freeskiing’s biggest stage.
Mammoth Mountain (USA), Jan 29-31, 2020 - For the first halfpipe World Cup of the new year it’s back Stateside to a truly legendary freeskiing resort, as we return to California for the fourth time in five years for the Land Rover US Grand Prix Mammoth Mountain. Mammoth’s Unbound terrain park and halfpipe have seen essentially any rider who’s anybody put in some laps at one time or another, and the pure vibe around the resort is a joy to take in every season. Pulling into that parking lot and seeing the massive woolly mammoth sculpture that greets the resort’s visitors inspires a little bit of awe in everybody who makes the trip, and on days when the sun is shining there’s no better place to be for a day of World Cup halfpipe competition.
Calgary (CAN), Feb 13-15, 2020 - The 2019/20 FIS Freeski Halfpipe World Cup season will come to a conclusion in mid-February in the Great White North, at Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park. One of the host venues for the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympic Games, Canada Olympic Park has since then become one of Canada’s most important high performance sport training centres. Located as it is just 20 minutes from downtown Calgary, a city of some 1.3 million people, COP is also one of the most conveniently-located venues as you’re likely to find anywhere in the world. With Canada’s best halfpipe and the excitement of the halfpipe World Cup finals going down in one of the world’s best freeski nations, the Snow Rodeo in Calgary is sure to be a fitting ender to the season.
Ones to watch - Women (click for FIS bio):
Cassie Sharpe (CAN) - It’s hard to find a more dominant athlete in either the women’s or men’s halfpipe fields than Cassie Sharpe. The 27-year-old freeskier from Calgary has an impressive record of achievement including 2018 Olympic gold medal, 2015 & 2019 world championships silver medals, along with numerous World Cup, X-Games and Dew Tour victories and podiums. All those milestones aside, however, and Sharpe would still be renowned for her flawless style, big tricks and a constant striving for progression. Even though she will miss the first portion of the World Cup season while recovering from an injury, we’re sure she’ll be right on top of her game once back on snow.
Kelly Sildaru (EST) - Touted as the future of freeskiing since the first edits of her and her little brother Henry hit the internet when she was barely in grade school, Kelly Sildaru has done nothing but live up to those expectations in the years since. Winner of slopestyle gold at her first X Games - when she was just 13 - Sildaru now has six junior world championship gold medals, podiums in five of five career World Cups, a handful of Dew Tour podiums, seven X Games medals, and Utah 2019 world champs halfpipe gold to her name - all at the age of 17. Elite in halfpipe, big air, and slopestyle, Kelly Sildaru is already one of the biggest names in skiing.
Brita Sigourney (USA) - With her first World Cup start dating back to 2009, the 29-year-old Sigourney has been competing on the highest level for over a decade now. She was the first women to ever stomp a 1080 in halfpipe competition and among her biggest achievements you’ll find a bronze Olympic medal from Pyeongchang 2018, as well as last year’s world championships bronze medal from Park City. All in all Sigourney is a podium threat every time she enters a competition, and with two World Cup stops on US soil in 2019/20 there’s no doubt that we’ll see her name up around the top of the World Cup standings again by season’s end.
Not to be overlooked - Rachael Karker (CAN), Zhang Kexin (CHN), Ailing Eileen Gu (CHN), Maddie Bowman (USA).
Ones to watch - Men
Aaron Blunck (USA) - One of the top dogs on the star-studded US Freeski Team, Blunck is the two-time reigning world champion from Sierra Nevada 2017 and Utah 2019. His golden run from last year’s world champs in Park City featured back-to-back-to-back-to-back doubles, including a massive 1440 tail on his second-to-last hit, and was probably one of the most technical runs in history of halfpipe skiing. Blunck started the 2019/20 season with a third place finish in Cardrona (NZL) and certainly will be looking to jump on top of the podium in Copper, where he won last season. With no major events on the calendar this season, the FIS Freeski World Cup crystal globe is certainly on Blunck’s radar after he just missed his chance to claim one in 2014 and 2016.
Simon d’Artois (CAN) - 27-year-old Canadian ripper - who not only enjoys dropping his signature, massive air-to-fakie pipe hits, but also likes to get behind the lens and take some exceptional images - is coming off a tremendous and 2018/19 that was something of a breakout season for the veteran. First he claimed his very first World Cup victory at the future Olympic venue in Secret Garden, put down solid results throughout the year, and claimed the FIS Freeski World Cup crystal globe at the last stop of the 2018/19 tour at Mammoth Mountain. If he’s about to repeat last year’s performance only time will tell, but one thing we can be certain of is that the stylish pipe technician will look good while he does it.
David Wise (USA) - One of the most experienced athletes on tour and the owner of back-to-back Olympic gold medals from Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018, David Wise is the man to watch out for every single time he drops into pipe. He is technical, stylish, clean and boasts massive amplitude throughout his runs. If you’ve got any doubts about these claims, just watch his gold medal run from PyeongChang and try not to get goosebumps. Wise knows how to perform under pressure and how to put it down when it counts most, and when he’s dropping in as the last rider of the day you’d be smart to bet on a winning run about to go down.
Not to be overlooked - Birk Irving (USA), Noah Bowman (CAN), Alex Ferreira (USA), Kevin Rolland (FRA), Nico Porteous (NZL).
Livestream:
Perhaps the biggest news of the off-season for fans of FIS Snowboard, Freestyle, and Freeski World Cup action was the announcement that all World Cup events - save for those with special broadcast rights restrictions such as the ones seen in Switzerland and Austria - will be live streamed on the FIS Snowboard or FIS Freestyle YouTube channels this season.
While geoblocking restrictions will limit the free viewing of our livestreams, the new agreement with broadcast rights holder InFront Sports and Media is an important and exciting one for our sports moving forward, and we look forward to growing engagement and viewership over the season as awareness spreads.
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