Gremaud and Ruud take top spots in Tignes slopestyle
Mar 18, 2023·Freeski Park & Pipe
A near-perfect week of slopestyle action in France wrapped up on Saturday with an exceptional slopestyle finals, where blue skies, spring-like temperatures show-stopping victories for Mathilde Gremaud (SUI) and Birk Ruud (NOR) ensured the Tignes Mountain Shaker World Cup finished on a high.
After finals at last year’s Tignes competition were cancelled due to high winds, the legendary resort was in line for a much-deserved rebate this year. And, with the redesigned slopestyle course running perfectly and the weather ideal for the past four days of action, the Tignes Mountain Shaker got just that.
GREMAUD CLAIMS FIRST SLOPESTYLE WORLD CUP WIN IN FOUR YEARS
Coming into this week’s competition in Tignes it was Norway’s Johanne Killi who had run the table thus far in the women’s slopestyle season, taking wins in all three of the World Cups leading up to the penultimate stop this week. And while it was looking after run one like the 25-year-old might keep her streak of perfection going, it was the reigning Olympic and World Championships gold medallist Gremaud who had other plans for the podium.
Gremaud started off her winning run on the top two jumps with a switch left 540 Japan followed by a right rodeo 900 safety, before heading into the rails where she stomped a switch right tails 270 to forward, then a frontswap transfer continuing 270, and finally a frontside 450 on the big tube, then capping it all off with a big, super clean left double cork 1080 safety on the final hit.
While Gremaud has been outstanding on the biggest stages in freeskiing over the past few seasons - as her Olympic and World Championships golds can attest to - somehow Saturday’s victory was her first slopestyle World Cup win in almost exactly four years. Once the scores were all in and the dust had settled she was suitably hyped on the result.
“It’s so good to get this win,” Gremaud smiled from the finish area, “I came here kind of low energy and I was a little scared on the first fay of training, not feeling that great, and I haven’t actually won a slopestyle World Cup in four years, so I’m super excited that it worked out today.”
Second place went to the aforementioned Killi, who put together a ridiculously smooth first run but unfortunately crashed trying to up the difficulty in attempt number two. Still, with a slick right slide k-fed on the down-flat-down and a buttery smooth left 900 blunt on the final jump, Killi would earn a score of 95.25 for her fourth slopestyle podium of the season, locking up the women’s slopestyle crystal globe with one event still to go in the process.
Third place for the women went to Canada’s Megan Oldham, as her breakout 2022/23 season just keeps on giving. Oldham set the tone of the competition with the first run to hit the 90s. With a 900 to 900 combo on the first two jumps - right 900 with a tickled tail grab on the first to switch switch left 900 safety on the second - and a left double cork 1080 mute on the final hit, Oldham would earn a score of 90.00 points exactly and her second podium of the season.
RUUD’S INCREDIBLE SEASON ROLLS ON WITH FIFTH WIN OF 2022/23
Over on the men’s side of things we knew it was going to be a heavy battle at the top, with Birk Ruud and Andri Ragettli coming into competition separated by just 20 points on the slopestyle World Cup rankings, with only Tignes and Silvaplana (SUI) left on the calendar.
Ruud has been essentially unstoppable in 2022/23, hitting the podium at every single FIS event - World Cup and World Championships - this season, racking up four World Cup wins and World Champs slopestyle gold and big air bronze in that time. On Saturday, he was at it again.
Ruud lead off his 96.00-scoring first run with a switch left double cork 1620 mute, straight into a right double cork 14 safety to go clean through the first two jumps, and then through the rails kicking things off with a left 450 on continuing 270 off, to right 450 on to pretzel 270 off, and then a switch left 450 on to continuing 450 off, before putting an exclamation point on things with a left double bio 1800 mute on the final hit.
The win was Ruud’s sixth podium on the season, and if you go back to the final event of 2019/20, the 22-year-old has only missed the podium once in 13 starts. Of course, all those podiums translate to a whole lot of points, and with his victory on Saturday Ruud was able to clinch the FIS Freeski overall crystal globe for the second straight season.
“Like I always say, I’m just trying to focus on my run and do my best,” Ruud said just before heading off to the awards ceremony, “I managed to put down a really good run today that I was hyped on and I ended up on top of the podium again. I worked hard for this and it feels good for sure. The level is just so incredibly good now and it’s great to be a part of, but it’s tough. The young guns are coming and I’m not comfortable, I gotta keep working.
“And now the overall crystal globe, I think I’ve got that locked in, so that’s sick. Two in a row. Still one more competition to go to make sure I can get slopestyle, too, though. I’m not done yet.”
We’ll get to Ragettli in a minute, because while he also landed an exceptional run, it was Sweden’s Jesper Tjader coming through in second place, as the 28-year-old legend of the game put down what was perhaps the most entertaining run of the competition.
Leading things off with a left double misty 900 Japan that was kind of a bring-back but too smooth to really call as such, into a switch right blender double cork 1440 mute on the second hit, and then an outrageous 810 on to continuing 270 out on the gap-to-tube, Tjader’s run was pure technical wizardry, and his score of 94.00 would earn him runner-up honours and the eighth World Cup podium of his career - not to mention, his fourth top-3 in France.
Ragettli would round out the podium in third place with a score of 92.50. With a right double cork 1440 mute into a left double 1440 blunt through the first two jumps, a switch slide to rodeo 610 safety out on the canon rail, and a switch double bio 1620 safety on the final hit, Ragettli’s run was undeniably strong, but left him just short in his quest to knock Ruud off the top of the podium.
Ragettli now has 300 slopestyle points on the season, and he heads into the final event next weekend on home soil in Silvaplana trailing Ruud by 60 points. While it would take an unlikely combination of a huge misstep by Ruud and a second place, or better, finish by Ragettli for things to change in the standings, stranger things have happened.
For the women’s globe battle left to be decided, it’s down to Killi and Gremaud in the quest for the FIS Freeski overall title, with Killi holding 380 points and Gremaud 54 points back with 326.
Tune in next weekend to our season finale in Silvaplana to find out how it all shakes out, where qualifications are slated for Thursday, 23 March, followed by finals on Saturday the 25th.
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