Massive Tignes week set for big air season finale and slopestyle showdown
Mar 12, 2024·Freeski Park & Pipe
After a three week break the FIS Freeski World Cup tour is back in a big way this week in France’s legendary Tignes resort for the annual Mountain Shaker Festival, where we’ve got the the big air World Cup season finale set to go down under the lights on the evening of Friday, 15 March at 19:00 CET, followed by slopestyle finals the very next day, on Saturday, 16 March at .
Qualifications in Tignes begin with women’s big air on Wednesday at 9:15, followed by men’s slopestyle at 10:45. Thursday will then see men’s big air at 9:25, with women’s slopestyle on for 13:30.
GREMAUD LOOKING FOR HISTORY, TABANELLI LOOKING TO HOLD ON IN BIG AIR
While Tignes has hosted nearly every event there is to be held under the FIS Freestyle, Snowboard and Freeski umbrella over the course of it’s 45+ year history as a World Cup venue, this week will mark the first time freeski big air competition has hit the resort’s slopes.
However, if there’s one thing we learned back during Tignes’ days hosting halfpipe night finals not so many years ago, the French resort turns up in a big way when it comes time to bring the vibes to the bottom of the venue, and everyone on hand this week, from the fans to the athletes, should be ready for a big show come time for the first runs on Friday evening.
Leading the big air World Cup on the women’s side of things is Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud, as the 24-year-old looks to finish an impeccable 2023/24 season with a few more strong results as she chases what could be the first crystal globe wins of her outstanding career.
With five victories and a second-place finish in her six starts so far this season, Gremaud sits not only atop the big air standings, but also the slopestyle and the Freeski overall crystal globe rankings. Should she be able to hold on to those leads, Gremaud will become the first woman in FIS Freeski history to lock down three crystal globes in one season.
The first one of those globe wins could come on Friday, as with 280 big air points, Gremaud needs to finish just eighth or better to put herself fully out of reach of France’s own Tess Ledeux, who currently sits second overall with 212 points.
Ledeux of course will be looking for the win on home soil, and the 22-year-old comes into Tignes as the only skier who has bested Gremaud this year, claiming victory at Copper Mountain (USA) back in January. The big air shootout between these two will be one of the top stories to watch this week.
Current big air third overall on the women’s side is a tie between Kirsty Muir of Great Britain and Norway’s Sandra Eie. With Muir currently sidelined due to injury, a strong performance by Eie this week should be enough to jump into third on the big air World Cup season podium and hold off the handful of challengers below her on the rankings.
Flora Tabanelli (ITA), Anni Karava (FIN), Sarah Hoefflin (SUI), Olivia Asselin (CAN) and Rell Harwood (USA) are a few of the those challengers with a chance to upset Eie’s bid, so keep an eye on them in women’s competition this week.
Over on the men’s side of the big air equation it’s the 19-year-old upstart Miro Tabanelli of Italy currently clinging to top spot with 162 points, after finishing eighth at the season-opener in Chur (SUI), fourth in Beijing (CHN), and then earning his first career World Cup podium with a second-place finish at Copper Mountain.
Tabanelli is competing in just his second World Cup season, and it will be interesting to see how his nerves hold out this week with some of the biggest big dawgs in the freeski world on site here in Tignes and nipping at his heels for the crystal globe.
Tops amongst those is the USA’s Alex Hall, who sits 26 points back of Tabanelli with 132 points. The winner of the Beijing big air back in December and, quite simply, one of the most talented freeskiers in the history of the sport, Hall - like his fellow Olympic slopestyle gold medallist Gremaud - still doesn’t have a crystal globe to his name.
While there was some talk that he’d be taking the rest of the World Cup competition season off to go film, Hall is here and he means business.
It doesn’t get any more relaxing for Tabanelli when you move down the rankings past Hall, either, with five-time crystal globe winner Andri Ragettli (SUI), reigning big air Olympic gold medallist Birk Ruud (NOR), and Copper Mountain big air World Cup winner Mac Forehand all on the scene and holding a realistic chance of catching the young Italian with strong performances this week.
Then there’s the skiers with little-to-no opportunity of winning the globe, but with a very real chance of hitting the men’s podium here in Tignes, with the likes of 2024 X Games big air bronze medallist Daniel Bacher and style god Matej Svancer both repping Austria, reigning big air World Champion and X Games gold medallist Troy Podmilsak of the USA, Beijing World Cup second-place finisher Edouard Therriault of Canada, rising star Luca Harrington of New Zealand, and a slew of others capable of making some big air noise this week.
GREMAUD IN THE WOMEN’S SLOPESTYLE DRIVER’S SEAT WHILE HALL AND FOREHAND NECK-AND-NECK IN USA SHOWDOWN FOR THE MEN
While the cast of characters remains more or less the same when we’re looking ahead to slopestyle competition at the Tignes Mountain Shaker, there are some different storylines to watch out for - though it appears we won’t be seeing one of the most intriguing of them all playing out this week, at least.
While both the big air and slopestyle crystal globes are all but assured of ending up in the hands of Mathilde Gremaud, there’s an extremely interesting situation brewing on the Freeski overall standings, where halfpipe crystal globe winner Eileen Gu (CHN) sits just 20 points back of Gremaud.
An athlete’s top six results count towards the points total for the Freeski overall crystal globe, and with six competitions each to their credit so far in the 2023/24 season, Gremaud and Gu are separated by just 20 points - 580 for Gremaud, and 560 for Gu.
Gu was initially rumoured to be heading to Tignes for this week’s competition, though it now appears that we’ll have to wait until Silvaplana to see if the showdown between the two freeski titans will take place.
However, should Gremaud win either the big air or the slopestyle competitions in Tignes this weekend, it will all be a moot point, as the Swiss skier will finish her campaign with a perfect 600 points to become the first freeski woman in FIS Freestyle’s history to win three crystal globes in a single campaign.
Even if Gu does come to the season finale in Silvaplana and take the victory there, the best the 20-year-old phenom can hope for is a total of 580 points by season’s end.
However, back to the competition here in Tignes where, when it comes to the slopestyle globe, by the looks of it Gremaud has it even more locked up than the big air trophy. With a perfect 300 points from three competitions thus far, Gremaud sits 168 points ahead of the USA’s Jay Riccomini’s 132 points, while Tess Ledeux sits further back still with 116 points.
As with big air, an eighth-place finish or better this week in Tignes will mean that the slopestyle globe is also ensured of ending up in the Swiss skier’s hands following the season finale next week in Silvaplana.
For the men, things are looking good at the top of the table for the U.S. Ski Team, with Alex Hall and Mac Forehand tied at 210 points apiece heading into this week’s action in Tignes. As we mentioned earlier, Hall is on the hunt for his first career globe, and he’s got two clear opportunities to get that done here as we close out 2023/24.
Forehand, meanwhile, is looking for the second crystal globe title of his career, with the first coming back in 2019 when he was just 17-years-old. With two podiums and a fourth-place finish in three slopestyle starts this season, Forehand has been the most consistent skier on the men’s side 2023/24. If he can keep that going for two more competitions, he may very well be in possession of his second career World Cup title after Silvaplana.
While there’s a handful of skiers still mathematically in the slopestyle crystal globe race for the men, realistically it’s only Birk Ruud and Andri Ragettli who Hall and Forehand will be looking over their shoulders at, with Ruud holding 172 slopestyle points and Ragettli with 155.
When it comes to slopestyle competition in Tignes, Ruud is the man to beat, and he comes into this week’s competition looking to make it three in a row at the venue. In fact, with this being the third iteration of the Mountain Shaker slope contest, Ruud’s the only dude to stand on top of the podium here.
Ragettli is no slouch in Tignes, either, with a third place finish last season and a fourth the year before, ending up in a tie with Forehand.
That’s plenty to chew on ahead of this week’s competition in Tignes, so we’ll leave it there for now and save our look ahead at the men’s Freeski overall globe battle until before next week’s action in Silvaplana.
As always, stay tuned to our social channels for updates on livestream and where-to-watch info closer to competition.
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