2020/21 FIS Freestyle Ski aerials World Cup season preview
Dec 01, 2020·Freestyle
The commencement of the 2020/21 FIS Freestyle World Cup season will take place this Friday when aerials World Cup action takes to the slopes of Finland’s Ruka resort for the first time in 17 years. And though this winter’s aerials World Cup campaign will subject to the sort of new and stringent safety measures and restrictions that sporting events all around the world have had to adopt due to the global pandemic, we’re confident that the highest-flying athletes in the world will once again put up an extraordinary show in each of the locations the moguls World Cup tour will visit in 2020/21.
Friday’s season-opener in Ruka is the first of 11 aerials or aerials team competitions slated for 2020/21, and it’s the only aerials World Cup competition on this side of the new year - which means that once we get back to action in 2021 it’s going to be a jam-packed few months of action.
January will see a pair of competitions in Russia to begin with, first at new venue Yaroslavl with aerials on the 16th and an aerials team event on the 17th, and then in Moscow with individual competition on the 23rd. After that it’s a quick hop halfway around the world to Calgary (CAN), where we’ll close out January with an individual event on the 31st. Then after Calgary it’s down to Deer Valley (USA) for the perennial season highlight at the Freestyle International on 05 February, before we head back over to Europe for a stop in Raubichi (BLR) on 13 February.
The latter half of February will be dedicated to the 2021 Zhangjiakou FIS Snowboard, Freestyle & Freeski World Championships, after which the aerials athletes will stay on in China, moving some 1300kms to the north to another new World Cup venue in Zha Lan Tun. Individual competition in Zha Lun Tun will go down on 06 March and team competition on the 7th. Finally, the 2020/21 aerials World Cup season will come to a close with an individual competition on March 13th in Almaty (KAZ).
Full 2020/21 FIS Freestyle aerials World Cup calendar
Takeaways from 2019/20
The 2019/20 FIS Freestyle aerials World Cup came to a close in truly cinematic fashion, with Australia’s Laura Peel and Noe Roth of Switzerland each claiming victory in the final event of the season to claim the respective women’s and men’s aerials crystal globes. And, with each athlete earning what was their first career globe, we were shown once again how the aerials World Cup is one of the hardest to predict of any under the FIS Freestyle & Freeski umbrella.
Peel was able to halt perennial favourite Xu Mengtao’s (CHN) globe-winning streak at three straight, with Xu forced to settle for second overall after faltering with a 10th-place finish in Krasnoyarsk. Rounding out the women’s top five was Utah 2019 world champion Aliaksandra Ramanouskaya (BLR), Megan Nick (USA) and Xu Sicun (CHN). Meanwhile, some typical top competitors like PyeongChang 2018 Olympic champion Hanna Huskova (BLR) and Sierra Nevada 2017 world champion Ashley Caldwell (USA) found themselves falling down the rankings in 2019/20 - ninth overall for Huskova and 17th for Caldwell.
On the men’s side of things we witnessed a final rankings the likes of which hadn’t been seen in a decade, as no Chinese athletes finished in the top-5. Roth’s crystal globe was only the second ever for a Swiss man, with the first coming way back in 1983. Behind Roth were a pair of Russians, with Pavel Krotov making a huge jump from 17th overall the previous season to second in 2019/20, and Utah 2019 world champion Maxim Burov ending up just behind in third overall.
Meanwhile, making a huge splash in just his second season of World Cup action was Roth’s Swiss teammate Pirmin Werner, with a fourth overall finish. Werner was followed by the steadily improving Lewis Irving (CAN) in fifth. Whether these results represent a true sea change in the aerials power rankings remains to be seen, but last season definitely set the stage for some drama in 2020/21.
Things to watch in 2020/21
With this being a world championships season and a qualifying year for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, expect the level of competition to be ramped up across the board, as athletes begin upping their degrees of difficulty and looking to lock down the jump sequences that might lead them to glory at the next two seasons’ marquee events.
However, it remains to be seen just who we’re going to see competing and at what events in 2020/21. For the season-opener in Ruka, at least, the powerhouse Chinese team will not be in attendance, and with the stringent pandemic safety measures currently enforced by the Chinese government it’s tough to say if when we will see them in action.
When the Chinese team does return, keep your eyes on Xu Mengtao. She currently sits in a tie with Jacqui Cooper (AUS) for the most career aerials crystal globes of all-time with five, and is also tied with Cooper for the most career aerials World Cup victories with 25. On top of that, she’s just two back of her countrywoman Li Nina for the all time women’s aerials podium record of 45. This could be a hugely historic season for the 30 year-old, once she gets back to business.
On the men’s side of things, reigning Olympic champion and 2015/16 crystal globe winner Oleksandr Abramenko (UKR) is set to make his return to the World Cup after taking all of the 2019/20 season off, and could be a major factor this season as he gears up to defend his gold medal 14.5 months from now.
Beyond that, look to last season’s leaders to pick up where they left off last March and try to establish some momentum heading towards February’s world championships. However, don’t be surprised if someone emerges from lower down the rankings to find their groove and go on a strong run in 2020/21.
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