New year brings new Freeski Halfpipe favorites at Calgary World Cup
Dec 30, 2025·Freeski Park & Pipe)
The new year could bring new names to the top of the Freeski Halfpipe podium in Calgary as Australian teenager Indra Brown continues a breakout World Cup debut season that has already delivered two podium finishes.
Fifteen-year-old Brown is among a field of 27 women at the Calgary Freeski Halfpipe World Cup beginning on 1 January 2026. The Australian comes to Calgary off the back of her runner-up finish in Copper (USA) behind reigning World Champion Zoe Atkin (GBR) just before the Christmas break.
Brown’s performance in Copper marked the Australian's second top-three result of the 2025/26 season after she was third at Secret Garden (CHN) earlier in December in what was the teenager’s first-ever World Cup start.
The Calgary Freeski Halfpipe World Cup is the third event of the 2025/26 season after the season opener in Secret Garden in December, followed by the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix in Copper.
Brown was third behind Atkin in Secret Garden, while reigning Olympic Halfpipe champion Eileen Gu (CHN) topped the field to claim her sixth consecutive World Cup win since 2024, and her 19th overall World Cup victory across Halfpipe and Slopestyle. Atkin and Gu are not competing in Calgary, which could leave room for up-and-comers such as Brown to move up the ranks. After two events, Brown currently trails Atkin on the women’s Halfpipe World Cup standings on 140 points, with Atkin on 180 points.
Should Brown take the win in Calgary, she would match Swedish Slopestyle specialist Jennie-Lee Burmansson for the best three-event start to a FIS Freeski World Cup career, as Burmansson claimed a win, a second, and a third in her first three World Cup starts back in the 2017/18 season, also at just 15 years old.
China’s Zhang Kexin was third behind Brown in Copper and is one of four Chinese skiers in the women’s field alongside last season’s joint Crystal Globe winner Li Fanghui, and Liu Yishan. Li, 22, won last season’s Calgary World Cup but has had a rocky start to the 2025/26 season after she did not start in Copper and was ninth on home snow in Secret Garden. Eighteen-year-old Liu, on the other hand, recorded her best career performance in Copper with fourth place behind Zhang.
Canada’s Amy Fraser returns to competition in Calgary after she did not contest Copper following her fourth-place finish in Secret Garden. Fraser is joined by compatriots Rachael Karker, Cassie Sharpe, Dillan Glennie and Ava Dittmer. Sharpe previously won the 2019 edition of the Calgary World Cup, while Fraser was runner-up here in 2024. Last season Karker finished third in Calgary and was one of four Canadians in the eight-woman final in which Sharpe was fourth, Glennie was seventh while Fraser was eighth. Home snow advantage could be pivotal to Karker this week, whose Calgary record of seven podiums since 2019 includes five as runner-up.
The United States of America is fielding a team of 10 women in Calgary as U.S. skiers enter the home stretch of their Olympic qualification process. Only three skiers from the women’s U.S. team progressed to the final in Copper in December, with Kate Gray in fifth place, while Riley Jacobs and Abby Winterberger were seventh and eighth respectively. Svea Irving is the last U.S. female skier to claim a top-three finish in Calgary in 2024. The only other U.S. skier to finish on the women’s podium in Calgary is Hanna Faulhaber, who was runner-up in 2021 and third at two consecutive events in 2022 and 2023.
In the men’s field of 43 skiers, New Zealander Finley Melville Ives returns to competition in Calgary this week after the 19-year-old reigning World Champion won the Secret Garden season opener in December. His runner-up and compatriot Luke Harrold is not competing in Calgary, but Melville Ives is joined by 16-year-old Cooper Breen, who qualified for his first final in Copper, as well as Gustav Legnavsky and Ben Harrington, the older brother of reigning Big Air World Champion Luca Harrington. Melville Ives claimed the first World Cup win of his career last season in Calgary after surpassing a stacked field of previous winners.
Current Freeski Halfpipe World Cup standings leader Hunter Hess (USA) is one of 18 U.S. skiers in the men’s field. Hess sits atop of the leaderboard on 140 points after he was runner-up behind Alex Ferreira in Copper and third at the season opener in Secret Garden. Ferreira is not competing in Calgary but many eyes will be on double Olympic Halfpipe champion and Beijing 2022 silver medalist David Wise and three-time Olympic Slopestyle medalist Nick Goepper as they try to qualify for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in February. The pair come to Calgary after 35-year-old Wise was 13th in Copper and Goepper 16th.
Meanwhile, teammates Tristan Feinberg, Ben Fethke and Birk Irving will be hoping to build on their fifth, sixth and seventh-place finishes respectively from Copper. The trio were among 11 U.S. skiers in the 16-man final in Copper in which six ultimately finished within the top 10. Irving was also previously runner-up in Calgary in 2023 and third at the 2020 edition.
Local skier Brendan Mackay (CAN) is one of 10 Canadian men competing in Calgary. The 28-year-old did not compete in Copper after winning the inaugural Snow League Freeski Halfpipe competition, and he will be hoping to get his 2025/26 World Cup campaign on track this week after finishing 14th at Secret Garden. Mackay’s record in Calgary includes consecutive wins in 2021 and 2022 and three as runner-up. Last season Mackay finished fifth in Calgary after he was runner-up here in 2024.
Fellow Canadian Andrew Longino was ninth here last season but this time around the 23-year-old comes to Calgary buoyed by his third-place finish from Copper. Longino’s performance in Copper was his second career podium after he was also third in Cardrona in 2024.
Competition in Calgary will begin on Thursday 1 January with men’s qualifications from 10:45 Mountain Standard Time (MST), followed by the women’s qualifications from 14:00 MST.
The top 10 women and top 14 men from qualifications will progress to the finals on Saturday 3 January beginning at 10:30 MST.
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