PREVIEW: Big Air Chur 2024 opens FIS Freeski World Cup season

Oct 17, 2024·Freeski Park & Pipe

Freeski big air training in Chur (SUI) © Buchholz/@fisparkandpipe

Swiss freeski stars Mathilde Gremaud and Andri Ragettli will be looking to reach new heights in front of a home crowd when the Big Air Chur 2024 festival opens the FIS Freeski big air World Cup season on Friday.

The festival marks the fourth consecutive year that the Swiss alpine city of Chur has opened the FIS World Cup big air season for freeski and snowboard.

Twenty-four-year-old Gremaud returns to Chur as the defending women’s big air FIS Freeski World Cup crystal globe winner after a phenomenal 2023/24 season that began with a win at Big Air Chur 2023 and ended with three crystal globes in hand after the final event of the winter in Silvaplana.

High hopes abound for Big Air Chur 2024 after last year’s freeski finals were cancelled due to weather complications, with results from the qualification round results used to determine the event’s final standings.

Gremaud, a two-time Olympian who claimed bronze in big air and gold in slopestyle at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, will on Friday again face a strong challenge from World Cup discipline runner-up Tess Ledeux (FRA). The French skier won the Big Air Chur in 2021 and 2022 and claimed silver in the discipline’s debut at Beijing 2022 ahead of Gremaud.

Italian teenager Flora Tabanelli will also be looking to make her mark in Chur after the 16-year-old finished her first World Cup season ranked third overall. Tabanelli dominated the qualification round of the last World Cup event in Tignes, before slipping to third in the final. She also won gold at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games and claimed the big air title at the 2023 FIS Junior World Ski Championships.

A total of 15 competitors will hit Chur’s big jump on Friday to contest women’s freeski big air.

In the men’s competition, home advantage could prove decisive for Swiss skier Andri Ragettli, who begins this season following strong slopestyle and big air performances in 2023/2024. Ragettli ended the previous big air FIS World Cup season with third place in Tignes in March after finishing 10th at Big Air Chur 2023.

Ragettli’s main challengers include reigning big air World Champion Troy Podmilsak of the USA and last season’s third-overall finisher Miro Tabanelli (brother to Flora), all-time great Jesper Tjader of Sweden, and Austrian style god Matej Svancer. Canada’s Dylan Deschamps also returns as the defending Big Air Chur 2023 champion in a field of 56 competitors.

Friday’s big air competition will begin with the men’s qualifications at 8:50 CET, followed by the women’s qualification round at 13:30 CET.

In between morning qualifications and the finals at 20:00 CET, the festival stage will feature performances by Zurich rapper Lou Kaena and German hip hop duo Mehnersmoos, followed by Berlin artist $oho Bani. Following the freeski finals, German rapper Bonez MC will headline the afterparty.

On Saturday snowboard will take centre stage at Big Air Chur 2024.

FACTS & FIGURES

15 women from eight countries
56 men from 29 countries
First of six big air World Cup events across Europe, Asia and North America
Mathilde Gremaud (SUI) has appeared on the big air World Cup podium 12 times, including eight wins
Andri Ragettli (SUI) has amassed nine big air World Cup podium finishes