Laax Open 2022 closes out with spectacular Saturday
Jan 17, 2022·Snowboard Park & Pipe
The 2022 Laax Open drew to a spectacular close on Saturday in Switzerland, with a full day of FIS Snowboard slopestyle and halfpipe action taking to the immaculate Snowpark Laax venues, where Tess Coady (AUS) and Sean Fitzsimons (USA) claimed the slopestyle victories, and Chloe Kim (USA) and Ayumu Hirano (JPN) came through with the final World Cup halfpipe wins of the 2021/22 season.
Hirano would also claim the 2021/22 halfpipe crystal globe as the season’s top men’s World Cup competitor, while China’s Cai Xuetong would top the halfpipe standings for the seventh time in her incredible career to take the women’s globe.
SLOPESTYLE RECAP:
COADY UPS THE ANTE WITH VICTORY LAP EXCELLENCE
The top qualifier from Friday’s semifinals, 21-year-old Tess Coady simply kept the good times rolling through Saturday’s slopestyle finals in Laax, crushing her first run for a top score of 79.80 that would hold up through all challengers in run two.
The last rider to drop in the women’s competition and already secure in her victory, Coady in no way needed to step it up a notch for her second and final run of the day, but that’s exactly what she did, regardless.
Leading off with a half-cab on to backside 360 out on the first rail, Coady then stomped a wallride to crippler on the pyramid box, into a frontside 180 butter to switch back 3 out on the butter mound, before hitting the jump line where she started out with a switch backside 900 weddle, and then onto the trick of the day, as she stepped things up to a frontside double cork 1080 indy before finishing things off with a nice little backside air on the quarter pipe.
“It means so much to me to win the Laax Open,” Coady said after the awards ceremony, “I love this event and I’m always stoked just to be here. Even making finals is the best, but winning here is insane. I’m so stoked!”
Second place for the women went to Anna Gasser (AUT), as the living legend scored a 78.56 for a second run that included a cab double cork 900 weddle to backside dub 1080 melon combo through the kicker line.
Third place went to rising German star Annika Morgan, who nearly matched Gasser with her cab double cork 900 weddle to flatspin backside 1080 melon combo on her second run, scoring a 76.61 to take home her first career slopestyle World Cup podium.
FITZSIMONS CLAIMS CAREER FIRST
For the men there were a pair of US riders scoring their first career World Cup podiums on Laax’s storied slopes on Saturday, with 21-year-old Sean Fitzsimons leading the way with the win.
While he was fresh off a hugely disappointing 41st place finish in Mammoth Mountain (USA) just a week ago at the final official qualifying event for the US Olympic team, Fitzsimons was a man on a mission here in Laax, stepping up with a performance that is going force some hard decisions for the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team with just one spot left to fill on their slopestyle and big air roster for Beijing 2022.
Fitzsimons started his winning run with a backside 270 on to 270 out on the first down rail, into a boardslide underflip 630 tailgrab out on the pyramid rail, and then a slick frontside miller flip over the butter mound.
Through the jump line Fitzsimons then went frontside triple cork 1440 weddle, into a backside triple cork 1440 weddle - both huge, both stomped to perfection - before a beauty of a corked frontside 720 melon on the very tricky quarterpipe to earn himself a score of 80.91 and his maiden World Cup victory.
"It's a dream come true," Fitzsimons said following his victory, "I've been watching the Laax Open since I was a grom, and to win it is just crazy."
Just fractions of a point behind Fitzsimons in second place for the men was veteran Staale Sandbech of Norway, whose last World Cup podium also came in the form of a runner-up result in Laax back in the 2018/19 season.
Sandbech’s second run earned him a score of 80.43 - less than half a point back of Fitzsimons’ winner - with a rail line highlighted by a backside 180 on to cab 3 out that was the highest scoring trick of the day on the down rail, and featured a huge cab 1260 stalefish to frontside 1440 indy combo through the jump line.
Third place was the second U.S. rider to score a career first with his performance in Laax, as Jake Canter grabbed third place with a score of 74.76 for a run that included a half-cab on to nollie backside rodeo 540 out on the butter mound, and big ol’ backside triple cork 1440 indy on the second jump.
HALFPIPE RECAP:
ALL KIM DOES IS WIN, CAI CLAIMS CRYSTAL GLOBE
Just a few hours after Coady and Fitzsimons claimed their slopestyle wins it was on to the world-renowned Laax halfpipe for a sunset session of epic proportions to close out the 2021/22 FIS Snowboard halfpipe World Cup season.
Chloe Kim dominated proceedings in last year’s Laax Open halfpipe competition, claiming her third victory there with relative ease.
That win was one of six she’s now rattled off since her return to competition at the start of last season, and if you look at her bio on our database, you’ll see nothing but ones in every phase of FIS Snowboard competition she’s entered dating back to the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games four years ago.
All of which is to say that, when it comes to women’s halfpipe, this is Chloe Kim’s world, and we’re all just living in it.
On Saturday evening it was the same story once again, as Kim lead off her first run with a boosted backside air, into an even bigger frontside 1080 tail, then a cab 900 melon, then a switch backside 540 weddle with an uncharacteristic wobble in the awkward axis, which she was then able to recover from quickly and launch a cab 1080 melon on her last hit for a score of 90.25.
In her second and final run - a victory lap, of course - Kim seemed set to reveal something new to the big crowd lining Laax’s superpipe, but she washed out on her second hit, leaving the newest addition to her trick arsenal a secret until either X Games next week, or at Beijing on February 10th.
Just as we saw last season in Laax, second place behind Kim was Japan’s Mitsuki Ono, as the talented 17-year-old put down what was likely the best run of her career, leading things off with a frontside 900 tail grab and throwing her own cab 1080 with a stalefish grab on her second-to-last hit for a score of 89.00 and her third career World Cup podium.
Third place for the women would go to Spain’s Queralt Castellet - her fourth World Cup career podium in Laax. Riding with her typical hard-charging style, Castellet scored a 80.00 for a run that included an ultra-stylish cab 720 with a taipan grab and backside 900 weddle to frontside 900 melon combo to close things out.
Despite missing out on the Laax podium with a seventh place finish, China’s Cai Xuetong would be able to hold off Japan’s Sena Tomita and claim the crystal globe and her seventh career halfpipe World Cup title, with 215 points to Tomita’s 190.
HIRANO TAKES LAAX TITLE AND MEN’S CRYSTAL GLOBE
For the men it was Ayumu Hirano asserting himself as arguably the best halfpipe rider in the world, just four events into his return to competition after a three-and-a-half year absence, by taking his second-straight victory with a truly monstrous first run.
Leading things off with a frontside double cork 1440 indy that may have been the highest-boosted trick of the night, he then stomped an insanely clean cab dub 1440 weddle, then a frontside dub 1260 indy, then a backside dub 1260 weddle, and finally a frontside dub 1080 truck driver that would score him 93.25.
Hirano tried to take things up a notch on his second run, looking to lead off with a triple cork 1440 on his first hit, but would come up just a bit short on his rotation and wash out on the landing - the same story which could be repeated for his teammate Ruka Hirano, who also tried his own version of the triple in both his runs but was unable to cleanly bring it to his feet.
The first successfully landed triple cork in a FIS competition is right around the corner, no doubt, but for now we’ll have to wait until Beijing for the next opportunity.
Still, with his win Ayumu Hirano would finish the season atop the standings, earning his first career crystal globe with 250 points from in the season’s three competitions.
Second place for the men went to Switzerland’s own Jan Scherrer, who came through with a magnificent second run that featured a frontside dub 1440 indy to cab dub 1080 weddle combo in the middle of the run, and hugely steezy alley-oop frontside 900 nose grab to finish things off for a score of 90.00 and his first career Laax podium at the iconic venue in his home country.
Finally, the man that needs no introduction wrote one more chapter in the incredible story that is his career in snowboarding, as Shaun White grabbed third place in what was very likely his last World Cup competition.
White’s run was one we’ve seen before from him, but somehow it’s always special to witness the 35-year-old do what he does in a halfpipe, as he kicked things off with a frontside double cork 1080 stalefish, into a cab dub 1080 stalefish, then his iconic “Skyhook” aka frontside 540 stalefish, then a backside dub 1260 weddle, and finally a fronstide dub 1260 stalefish to finish things off - all launched to the moon with his inimitable style.
With a score of 84.00, and other favourites like Yuto Totsuka (JPN) and Scotty James faltering behind him, White would grab the 10th podium of his World Cup career and all-but-officially punch his ticket to his fifth Olympic Winter Games this February in Beijing.
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