Crystal Globe up for grabs when Freeski Big Air season finale closes out big week of action in Tignes
Mar 17, 2026·Freeski Park & Pipe:format(webp):focal(2059x540:2060x541))
A finish of sixth or better for Canada’s Naomi Urness at this week’s Freeski Big Air World Cup in Tignes will see the rookie win the discipline Crystal Globe for the 2025/26 FIS Freeski Big Air World Cup season.
Twenty-one-year-old Urness currently leads the women’s Freeski Big Air standings on 240 points going into the fourth and final World Cup event beginning on Wednesday 18 March in Tignes (FRA).
Urness comes into the 2026 Tignes Mountain Shaker week after finishing sixth in the Freeski Big Air final at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in February.
Prior to the Games, Urness claimed three top-three finishes – including her maiden World Cup victory at Steamboat (USA) in January – in all three of her Freeski Big Air starts in the 2025/26 season.
Urness made her World Cup debut in Freeski Slopestyle on home snow at the Stoneham World Cup in February 2025, at the end of the 2024/25 season.
The 2025/26 circuit marks her first full FIS Freeski Park and Pipe season.
At her Freeski Big Air debut during the Secret Garden (CHN) World Cup in November, Urness was runner-up. She followed up that debut performance with third place a week later at the Beijing World Cup, before claiming her first career World Cup victory in December in Aspen (USA).
Add it all up and it means that in three career World Cup Big Air starts, Urness has hit the podium three times, with all three steps on the box checked off.
Urness’ only real challenge to a rookie season Crystal Globe is Great Britain’s Kirsty Muir who trails the Canadian by 61 points in second place on 179 points.
The 21-year-old Muir began her Freeski Big Air season with victory in Secret Garden ahead of Urness but finished outside of the top five at the two subsequent World Cup events in Beijing and Steamboat with fourth and ninth place respectively.
Muir also finished just outside of the podium at Milano Cortina with fourth place in Freeski Big Air and Freeski Slopestyle.
With none of the Milano Cortina 2026 Big Air podium of Megan Oldham (CAN, gold), Eileen Gu (CHN, silver), or Flora Tabanelli (ITA, bronze) dropping in this week in Tignes, and with Mathilde Greamud announcing her withdrawal from competition due to the lingering effects of a slam in training at those same Games, the field is wide open behind Urness and Muir.
This should bode well for the likes of Finland’s Anni Karva, who claimed her maiden World Cup victory in Beijing in 2025. While the 25-year-old finished eighth in both Freeski Big Air and Slopestyle at Milano Cortina 2026, which were her second Olympic Winter Games after Beijing 2022 – Karava opened the 2025/26 season with three straight podiums, including two big air top-3s. The Finnish skier should be in the mix again this week in France.
Ukraine’s Kateryna Kotsar recently topped the field at the European Cup in Poland in late February after claiming her career first World Cup podium as runner-up in Steamboat behind current standings leader Urness.
Also to keep an eye on are the likes of Elena Gaskell (CAN), Engadin 2025 Big Air World Championships silver medallist Sarah Hoefflin (SUI), and U.S. upstart Avery Krumme.
In the men’s Freeski Big Air field of 60 athletes, U.S. skier Troy Podmilsak leads the FIS 2025/26 discipline standings on 200 points thanks to his back-to-back victories in Secret Garden and Steamboat in December.
Podmilsak will be keen to return to his winning World Cup form in Tignes after the 21-year-old was fourth at the Milano Cortina 2026 Games.
Freeski Big Air World Champion Luca Harrington (NZL) is also sitting on 200 points from three podium finishes – third, second, and third from Secret Garden, Beijing and Steamboat respectively – but the Milano Cortina 2026 Freeski Slopestyle bronze medallist is not competing in Tignes.
Podmilsak’s closest rival in Tignes for the men’s Crystal Globe is therefore Norway’s Ulrik Samnoey on 129 points. The 24-year-old claimed his maiden World Cup victory in Beijing in early December, but Samnoey’s results since include 20th place in Steamboat and ninth in his first Olympic Freeski Big Air final in February.
Also joining Samnoey in Tignes is team-mate and Beijing 2022 Freeski Big Air gold medallist Birk Ruud (NOR). The 25-year-old Freeski Slopestyle World Champion finished outside of the Freeski Big Air top five at Milano Cortina 2026 and will be keen to build on his recent victory at the Norwegian national championships on 12 March.
The top eight women and 12 men from Wednesday’s qualifications will advance to the night-time finals on Friday 20 March beginning at 19:00.
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