Epic ender for Park & Pipe season set for Silvaplana
Mar 20, 2024·Snowboard Park & Pipe
The 2023/24 FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe season is set up for an epic ender this week in Switzerland where the Silvaplana slopestyle World Cup will once again serve as the season finale, with qualifications taking to the impressive Corvatsch course on Thursday beginning at 9:00 CET, and finals slated for Saturday beginning with the women at 11:00 and the men at 13:00.
This season marks the fourth straight that Silvaplana will serve as the final stage of competition for the Park & Pipe World Cup, and what is arguably the best course in slopestyle is looking better than ever this season, with Corvatsch’s massive jump line standing front and centre and a revamped mix of features in the top and bottom sections of the course promising to make for some of the most spectacular runs yet at the spectacular resort.
MURASE LOOKING FOR CAREER’S SECOND 2X GLOBE SEASON
The big story on both the women’s and men’s sides of the World Cup standings is what could be utter domination of the Japanese team this season, with a strong possibility that their squad walks away with seven of the eight crystal globes up for grabs across the 2023/24 Park & Pipe events.
While Great Britain’s Mia Brookes won the women’s big air crystal globe, it’s been all Japan aside from that, with Kira Kimura taking the men’s big air globe, Mitsuki Ono winning the women’s halfpipe globe and Ruka Hirano earning the men’s halfpipe trophy.
On the women’s slopestyle rankings it’s currently Kokomo Murase on top with 145 points though the two events leading up Silvaplana. After leading a Japanese sweep on her way to victory last weekend in Tignes, Murase is looking like she could be tough to beat here in Silvaplana.
Murase has had a massive year in 2023/24, with three World Cup victories in five starts, as well as three podiums at the 2024 X Games, and successful stomps of a whole bunch of never-been-done in competition tricks. The 19-year-old has established herself as perhaps the heaviest-hitter in women’s freestyle snowboarding, and adding a second career slopestyle globe to her trophy case this weekend seems all but inevitable.
Along with her previous slopestyle globe in 2021/22, Murase also claimed the Park & Pipe overall title that season. This winter, with just Silvaplana left on the calendar, she currently sits in second on the overall rankings behind Ono. However, with only 35 points separating the two, a finish anywhere in the top seven this weekend in Silvaplana will give her another double-crystal-globe season.
While the only movement we’ll see atop the women’s Park & Pipe overall leaderboard will be if Murase earns that seventh place (or better) finish, on the women’s slopestyle rankings there are still a number of scenarios that could play out if Murase somehow falters this week.
Germany’s Annika Morgan is just 33 points back of Murase, while Miyabi Onitsuka, Laurie Blouin, Anna Gasser and handful of others are on hand here in Silvaplana and mathematically within reach of Murase. While we don’t think it’s likely that we see the Japanese leader will fall out of top spot, we do expect the top-3 to look differently than it does now by the time the dust has settled on Saturday.
KIMATA LEADING THE WAY INTO FINAL COMPETITION OF BREAKOUT SEASON
Over on the men’s side of things, it’s more promising news for the Japanese, as Ryoma Kimata sits atop both the slopestyle and the Park & Pipe overall standings. With three podiums - including his first World Cup victory last week in Tignes - and top-10 finishes in five out of six competitions so far this season, the 21-year-old is enjoying a breakout campaign that has put him at the forefront of the outrageously strong Japanese team.
With a win and a runner-up in the season’s two slopesyle World Cup competitions so far, Kimata has 180 points, giving him a 51 point lead over Canada’s Liam Brearley, winner of the slopestyle season-opener in Laax.
It’s by no means an unassailable advantage for Kimata over Brearley, as the Japanese rider would need a third-place result or better to fully guarantee himself of taking the crystal globe. Anything less than that and a win for Brearley would mean the men’s slopestyle globe would become one of a very few not to end up in Japanese hands this season.
Kimata’s lead on the men’s Park & Pipe overall rankings isn’t set in stone either, as Valentino Guseli (AUS) is lurking well within striking distance of his Japanese counterpart. Kimata’s 340 overall points put him just 32 points clear of Guseli’s 308 points, meaning that Kimata would need a second-place finish or better here in Silvaplana to fully ensure the big trophy win.
While the battle for the men’s slopestyle globes is really just down to Kimata and Brearley, and the overall to just Kimata and Guseli, as with the women there’s still plenty that could happen when it comes to the second and third place spots on the season’s final podium.
With Cam Spalding (CAN), Romain Allemand (FRA) Ian Matteoli (ITA), Taiga Hasegawa (JPN), Frank Jobin (CAN), Hiroto Ogiwara (JPN) and a few others all still in the mix points-wise, and the likes of Sven Thorgren (SWE), Judd Henkes (USA), Tiarn Collins (NZL), Nicolas Huber (SUI) and Beijing 2022 Olympic slopestyle silver medallist Su Yiming also dropping in on competition, there’s plenty of firepower on the scene and plenty left to shred for this weekend.
One final note, is that this week’s event in Silvaplana will mark the final competition for Belgium’s Seppe Smits, bringing to an end one of the most storied careers in FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe history.
While his 11 podiums and four victories in 63 World Cup starts over the course of 15 seasons already cements Smits as a legend on the tour, it’s his record five World Championships medals that puts him in an echelon that few can hope to approach in the ever-evolving world of competitive snowboarding.
One of the finest humans and purest snowboarders we’ve had the pleasure of knowing in FIS Snowboard, Seppe Smits' presence will be missed, and we’re looking forward to being a part of his last dance with competition this week.
QUICK LINKS
