PREVIEW: Big Air Chur World Cup
Oct 19, 2023·Freeski Park & Pipe
The first World Cup competitions of the International Ski (and Snowboard) Federation’s 100th anniversary are set to go down this weekend at the Big Air Chur FIS Freeski and Snowboard World Cup, where on Friday freeski will take the spotlight, followed by snowboard on Saturday.
There’s no way the founders of FIS could have imagined where skiing (and even more certainly not snowboarding, which didn’t exist) would be 100 years on from the Federation’s inception back in February of 1924, but here we are, and it’s magnificent.
With some 30,000 fans set to stream through the gates over the course of the weekend and a music festival atmosphere setting the stage for what will no doubt be an epic opening the the 2023/24 campaign, the Big Air Chur Festival represents the big, bold and brash cutting edge of skiing. It’s a spectacle, and it’s going to be a joy to watch yet again.
While the original programme for this Friday’s freeski competition was set to see qualifications beginning in the morning and finals going down under the lights in front of the big crowd in the evening, heavy rains forecast for Friday morning have forced a schedule change, moving qualifications up to Thursday morning.
Men’s freeski qualifications in Chur are slated to begin at 9:45CET in double-up judging format, followed by the women at 12:55.
As the forecast stands now the rain is supposed to ease off through Friday afternoon, giving us a window for finals that we hope will ensure the top-level competition that the athletes and the thousands of fans descending on Chur deserve. If that forecast holds, we’ll see freeski finals hit the big jump at 20:00 Friday evening.
Saturday’s weather is looking slightly more stable, and snowboard competition remains on schedule for qualifications beginning at 9:10 for the women, 12:00 for the men, and then a 20:00 start for the top eight women and top 10 men in finals.
Freeski competition will be headlined by the likes of Mathilde Gremaud (SUI), Tess Ledeux (FRA) and Megan Oldham (CAN) on the women’s side, while Birk Ruud (NOR), Andri Ragettli (SUI) and Matej Svancer (AUT) are a few of the big names set to drop in for the men.
For the snowboarders, look to a strong Japanese team featuring Reira Iwabuchi, Kokomo Murase and Miyabi Onitsuka, as well as Laurie Blouin (CAN), Mia Brookes (GBR) and, hopefully, Anna Gasser (AUT) to make some noise for the women, while Valentino Guseli (AUS), Sean Fitzsimons (USA), Sven Thorgren (SWE) and Taiga Hasegawa (JPN) will be a few of the names to watch out for on the men’s side of things.
One other thing of note here at the Big Air Chur is the brand-new jump set-up, which features 35m of the world-renowned JF Dry Ski technology on the in-ramp, which then transitions to snow a few meters before the compression, with the jump and landing constructed of snow as per usual.
Feedback on the in-run through Wednesday’s training has been overwhelmingly positive, with some athletes stating they can’t even notice the difference, and others suggesting the JF Dry Ski drop in is even better than snow. All we know is that it’s working, and it’s working well.
Stay tuned to our social channels for any weather related updates as they happen.
WHERE TO WATCH LIVE
FREESKI - LIVESTREAM (with geo restirctions), SRF (SUI), CBC Sports Streaming (CAN), CT Sport (CZE), Viaplay Streaming (DEN, GBR), Eurosport 1 (EU), V Sport Vinter (FIN, SWE), L'Equippe 4 (FRA), ESPN Latin America Streaming, V Sport + (NOR), Polsat Sport Premium 2 (POL), skiandsnowboard.live (USA)
SNOWBOARD - LIVESTREAM (with geo restrictions), SRF (SUI), ORF Sport + (AUT), CBC Streaming (CAN), CT Sport (CZE), Viaplay (DEN, FIN, GBR, SWE), Eurosport Player (EU), J Sport 2 (JPN), ESPN Latin America Streaming, V Sport + (NOR), Polsat Sport Premium 2 (POL), skiandsnowboard.live (USA)
QUICK LINKS
FIS Snowboard big air World Cup season preview (coming soon)
FIS data page FK (start lists, livescoring, results)
FIS data page SB (start lists, livescoring, results)
FIS.tv (highlights and more)
