Big air and slopestyle Junior World Championships wrap under tough weather conditions in Livigno
Apr 02, 2024·Freeski Park & Pipe
Despite the fact that the calendar officially turned over to spring almost two weeks ago, winter has maintained its grip on the European Alps, meaning bad news for late-season competitions going down in the region following the end of the World Cup season.
Very much included in the hard-done-by set of events was the Livigno 2024 FIS Park & Pipe Junior World Championships for slopestyle and big air, which saw some nasty weather from start to finish last week, ending up with cancelled big air finals on Saturday when the weather was far too wild to run a fair and safe competition.
However, results were awarded in almost all of the JWCs competitions scheduled for Livigno’s Mottolino Fun Mountain last week, with slopestyle finals taking place on Wednesday, snowboard big air podiums awarded based on qualification results from the phases leading up to the cancelled finals session on Saturday, and women’s freeski big air finals able to take place in full.
Unfortunately, men’s freeski big air medals could not be awarded, as weather got in the way of holding any competition phases at all for that competition.
On the snowboard side of things it was Czechia’s Laura Zaveska taking home the gold medal in slopestyle, followed up by Yura Murase of Japan in silver medal position and Rebecca Flynn of the USA claiming bronze.
For slopestyle men we saw Flynn’s USA compatriot Brooklyn Depriest stepping up for the slopestyle gold, with France’s Romain Allemand taking silver and Rocco Jamieson of New Zealand rounding out the podium with the bronze medal.
For big air it was more good news for the U.S. squad, as Flynn claimed her second medal of Livigno 2024 by taking women’s gold, followed by Momo Suzuki in silver medal position and Emily Rothney in bronze.
New Zealand claimed their second Livigno 2024 snowboard medal when Txema Mazet Brown was awarded men’s big air gold, while silver medallist Elias Lionel Lehner of Switzerland and bronze medallist Eli Bouchard of Canada rounded out the men’s podium.
Over on the freeski side of things we saw Germany’s Muriel Mohr taking home the gold medal win in women’s slopestyle competition, with Eleanor Andrews of the USA and Canada’s Avery Krumme rounding out the podium in silver and bronze medal positions, respectively.
The men’s event saw Norway’s Frank Walhlstrom stepping up to the top spot of the podium for slopestyle gold, with the USA’s Henry Townshend claiming silver and Henry Sildaru of Estonia taking the bronze in a Henry-heavy top-3.
Finally, women’s freeski big air Junior World Championships competition saw rising star Flora Tabanelli claiming the gold medal, with Mohr earning her second Livigno 2024 podium in silver medal position, and Mariia Aniichyn making history for her nation, claiming Ukraine’s first-ever FIS Freeski Junior World Championships top-3 with a bronze medal performance.
FIS would like to extend our gratitude to the organisers in Livigno for taking on these Park & Pipe Junior World Championships under short notice and putting in a huge effort to facilitate competition under some extremely difficult weather circumstances.
The courses were perfectly built there in Mottolino, and the good-weather training days we enjoyed to start the week showed a venue worthy of many more top-level competitions moving forward.
We can't wait to get back there in Italy soon to experience more competition at the future home of our events at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games - hopefully under some more ideal weather conditions!
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