Mammoth week rolls on with Gremaud and Ruud set to lead slopestyle charge
Jan 31, 2024·Freeski Park & Pipe
With a heavy winter storm looming just over the horizon, action at the Mammoth Mountain U.S. Grand Prix is set to continue on Wednesday, where we’re hoping the current forecast will hold for another day as we look to complete FIS Freeski World Cup slopestyle qualifications before the snow hits on Wednesday evening.
Tuesday saw hugely entertaining halfpipe qualification sessions take to the Mammoth Unbound pipe throughout the day, after those qualies were bumped up from the originally scheduled Thursday time slot. With one competition phase of the big Mammoth Grand Prix week in the bag, the outlook is looking optimistic for round two on Wednesday.
GREMAUD LOOKING FOR FIFTH WIN OF 2023/24 IN MAMMOTH
Leading the way on the women’s side of things here in Mammoth will be Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud, who’s chasing her fifth victory in what has been a dream 2023/24 season thus far.
Gremaud has taken the win in four out of five World Cup competitions in 2024/25, including a hugely impressive victory two weekends ago on home soil at the Laax Open. The 23-year-old currently sits atop the big air, slopestyle and FIS Freeski overall World Cup standings - and by a pretty significant margin on all three fronts. It’s shaping up to be a historic season for Gremaud if she can hold on to all those leads through the next two months of action.
Also on the scene here in Mammoth and slated to drop in on the slopestyle World Cup as well as the halfpipe competition is Eileen Gu (CHN). While Gu’s main point of focus is likely to be her chase for a 10th-straight halfpipe World Cup victory, she proved in Laax that she’s still very much a force to be reckoned with in slope despite an extended layoff.
Gu’s Laax Open start was her first slopestyle competition of any kind since she finished just behind Gremaud in silver medal position at the Bejing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, and just like at those Games Gu finished runner-up to Gremaud in Laax. However, second place is rarely ever good enough for Eileen Gu, and she’ll be keen to step things up here Mammoth.
Gremaud’s Swiss teammates Giulia Tanno and Sarah Hoefflin are also ones to be watched in the coming days, along with the likes of Ruby Star Andrews (NZL), Rell Harwood (USA), Olivia Asselin (CAN) and Jay Riccomini (USA).
Over on the men’s side of things it’s Birk Ruud (NOR) storming into Mammoth on a hot streak, having backed up his Laax Open win two weekends ago with his first X Games slopestyle victory this past weekend. Ruud took the victory here in Mammoth last season, and his current hot streak combined with his quest for a record-extending 15th FIS Freeski World Cup victory has him sitting firmly as the favourite for this week’s competition.
Ruud’s going to be hard-pressed by the U.S. squad however, as the host team boasts easily four skiers who have more than enough to take top spot this week.
Tops amongst those right now is Mac Forehand, the current FIS Freeski slopestyle and overall World Cup leader who rolls into Mammoth with second-place slopestyle finishes at both the World Cup season opener in Stubai and at the Laax Open. Forehand earned his first World Cup victory here in Mammoth back in 2018/19, and with the way he’s been skiing this season a repeat of that performance here five years later on is a very real possibility.
Forehand grabbed third place at X Games slopestyle behind Ruud and his U.S. teammate Alex Hall, and Hall represents another grade-A shot at a Mammoth win for the host team. Like Forehand, Hall’s got a Mammoth Grand Prix victory of his own which came in the 2021/22 season, and the big man will be looking for a 2023/24 slopestyle W to go along with his Beijing big air victory from earlier in the season.
The list of contenders stays strong beyond the big three mentioned above, including the likes of Laax Open third place finisher Max Moffat of Canada, 2019/20 Mammoth winner Andri Ragettli (SUI), Austria’s Matej Svancer, Stubai slopestyle winner Evan McEachran (CAN), and another handful of U.S. team representatives such as reigning big air World Champion and X Games big air winner Troy Podmilsak and X Games knucklehuck winner Colby Stevenson.
Stay tuned to our social media channels tomorrow and throughout the rest of the week for updates from Mammoth, including scheduling changes and where-to-watch info for finals.
QUICK LINKS
Mammoth Mountain data page (start lists, live scoring, results)
