After an exciting start to the 2019/2010 moguls season in Ruka last week, the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup will be back in action again this upcoming weekend with back-to-back single and dual moguls competitions slated to go down at Thaiwoo Ski Resort on December 14-15. 

With World Cup competitions already taking place in Thaiwoo dating back to the 2016/17 season when the resort hosted the first moguls World Cup competition, the venue and organizers have proven themselves up to the task of delivering a world-class show. This year it will be the fourth consecutive time that the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup tour will visit the Chinese resort.

In the ladies’ competition the one to watch is no doubt last season’s moguls World Cup winner  Perrine Laffont (FRA), who is coming off a hot start to the new season with a first-place finish in Ruka (FIN). The 21-year-old skier looked especially sharp this past weekend, showing flawless technique and impressing on the jumps with her d-spin at the bottom air.

Apart from Laffont, also to watch out for are Yulia Galysheva (KAZ), Jaelin Kauf (USA) and Brittney Cox (AUS), who have all claimed victories in Thaiwoo in previous seasons, as well as Jakara Anthony (AUS) and Justine Dufour-Lapointe, both of whom made it into the top-6 at the season’s opener in Ruka.

Then let’s not forget about Anri Kawamura of Japan, who celebrated her World Cup debut last week in Ruka with an unexpected second-place finish. The 15-year-old Kawamura amazed not only the fans that gathered around the course in Ruka, but the majority of her fellow competitors as well. It’s rare that a skier jumps onto the moguls World Cup and immediately onto the podium - especially at Kawamura’s age - and should she be able to perform anything like she did last weekend in Ruka we could be looking at the emergence of a special athlete, indeed.