Snowboard Park & Pipe World Cup season set for epic ender in Silvaplana
Mar 24, 2023·Snowboard Park & Pipe
The 2022/23 FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe season kicked off on the 22nd of October In Switzerland at the big air Chur and now - 11 World Cup competitions, one World Championships, and almost exactly five months later, we’re set to close out the campaign back in the country in which we began, with the Silvaplana slopestyle World Cup season finale taking place from 23-26 March at Corvatsch resort.
This season marks the 10th iteration of the Silvaplana slopestyle World Cup on the freeski side of things and the third time the snowboarders have been lucky enough to drop in on competition at the picturesque Engadin resort after first joining the programme here in the 2020/21 season.
Over those three seasons Silvaplana has quickly come to be an athlete-favourite stop on the World Cup tour, where one of the best slopestyle courses in the world and the good vibes that go along with the the start of spring come together to create a competition that can always be depended on to be a standout.
And, with the St. Moritz/Engadin region set to host the FIS Freestyle Ski, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships in 2025, the Silvaplana World Cup has come on to hold even greater significance, as the competition course for this weekend will be the same as for those World Champs in two years’ time.
With some on-and-off adverse weather in the forecast at Corvatsch we’ve had to revamp the schedule here in Silvaplana somewhat, with women’s qualifications now slated to take place on Thursday morning in double-up format with women’s freeski qualies beginning at 9:30 CET, then men’s qualifications following on Friday, and finals for both women and men still on schedule for Sunday.
UPDATE: Due to weather issues, women's finals will be taking place on Saturday beginning at 12:30, followed by men's qualifications at 14:00. Men's finals will take place on Sunday, time to-be-determined.
As always, we’re keeping fingers crossed that we get the weather windows we need and we’re able to send another exceptional season of Park & Pipe World Cup action off with finale it deserves.
MARINO, GASSER AND BROOKES HEADLINING WOMEN’S COMPETITION
Over on the women’s side of things it will be the USA’s Julia Marino enjoying a victory lap this week no matter what her ranking is in the competition, as the 25-year-old is assured of her first career slopestyle crystal globe before we even start with competition in Silvaplana.
Marino earned back-to-back wins in Mammoth Mountain (USA) and Calgary (CAN) in her last two World Cup starts and sits atop the table 230 points, and while Reira Iwabuchi (JPN) is mathematically within reach of Marino, the Japanese rider will be sitting out the World Cup finales after sustaining an injury at the Bakuriani 2023 World Champs.
There isn’t any drama to be had on the women’s side of things when it comes to the Park & Pipe overall globe, either, as Japanese halfpipe rider Mitsuki Ono - who earned three wins and a third place finish in four World Cup starts this year - sits an untouchable 107 points above Marino, with 360 points to Marino’s 253.
However, there’s plenty of movement that can happen when it comes down to who claims the silver and bronze medals in both the slopestyle and overall rankings, and there are some powerful players capable of shaking things up.
Tops amongst those has to be Austria’s Anna Gasser, last year’s Silvaplana winner and still one of the fiercest competitors in the game - as her three podiums in three World Cup starts this season can attest. Gasser is fresh off of claiming Bakuriani 2023 big air gold three weeks ago, and she's been attacking the Silvaplana course throughout training. Gasser is looking like she could be very tough to beat indeed this weekend.
However, 31-year-old Gasser is going to have to contend with 16-year-old Mia Brookes here in Silvaplana, as the upstart British rider comes into this weekend’s competition with a Bakuriani 2023 gold medal of her own after becoming the youngest-ever FIS Snowboard World Champion when she took top spot in slopestyle there in Georgia.
Laurie Blouin and Jasmine Baird of Canada, the Netherlands’ Melissa Peperkamp, and Miyabi Onitsuka of Japan are a few of the other names likely to make finals and capable of moving up into the final rankings top-3s this weekend for the women.
TOP-RANKED HENRICKSEN AND GUSELI LOOKING TO CAP THINGS OFF STRONG
On the top of the men’s slopestyle rankings we’re looking at an only slightly-less-sure situation than we see with the women, with the USA’s Dusty Henricksen needing to finish just 25th or better to earn the six points he needs to lock down his first career crystal globe at just 20 years of age.
With a win and two second place finishes in three slopestyle competitions this season, Henricksen currently has 260 points, putting him 95 points clear of 17-year-old Australian phenom Valentino Guseli and his total of 165. While a 100-point Guseli win isn’t out of the question here in Silvaplana - especially on a course with a halfpipe feature to finish things off - the likelihood of Henricksen finishing 26th or lower isn’t a strong one, and expectations are that outrageously stylish US rider will take home the trophy.
When it comes time to discuss the men’s Park & Pipe overall, however, there are absolutely no questions regarding who the top dog of 2022/23 was, as Guseli will walk away from this season having proven himself the best all-around competition snowboarder in the world, by a long shot.
Guseli has four World Cup podiums on the season, including a big air win, two halfpipe seconds and a slopestyle second, making him the first rider in FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe World Cup history to podium in all three events in a single season. Guseli already claimed the big air crystal globe back in January, and when you throw in a Bakuriani 2023 halfpipe silver medal and a third-place finish at the 2023 X Games in Aspen, and you’ve got one of the most mind-blowingly successful competition seasons in snowboard history.
And did we mention he’s just 17-years-old?
Guseli’s 440 points puts him 126 clear of halfpipe ruder Ruka Hirano (JPN), and 144 in front of Henricksen ahead of the start of competition here in Silvaplana, and there’s every possibility those totals are even greater by the time the season comes to a close on Sunday.
While it seems pretty clear that it’s going to be Henricksen and Guseli walking away with the trophy’s on Sunday, there’s a whole lot of additional firepower here in Silvaplana looking to grab one last podium spot this season.
The de facto number one name on that list has to be Norway’s Marcus Kleveland, the newly-crowned slopestyle World Champion and two-time, back-to-back winner here in Silvaplana. Kleveland’s only other FIS slopestyle start this season came in Laax back in January and he won that one, too, and when he’s on his game there’s virtually no one in the world who can touch him.
With riders on hand such as the hugely talented Japanese team featuring Bakuriani 2023 slopestyle silver medallist Ryoma Kimata, Bakuriani 2023 big air World Champion Taiga Hasegawa, Takeru Otsuka, Hiroto Ogiwara, Sven Thorgren and William Mathisen of Sweden, Canada’s Liam Brearley and Cameron Spaulding, Bakuriani slopestyle bronze medallist Chris Corning, Sean Fitzsimons and Brock Crouch of the USA, and of course the host Swiss squad with Bakuriani big air bronze medallist Nicolas Huber and Nick Puenter leading the way, the Silvaplana slopestyle World Cup is all set to send the 2022/23 season out with a bang.
WHERE TO WATCH
QUICK LINKS
Silvaplana data page (start lists, livescoring, results)
