Halfpipe World Cup season preview 2023/24
Dec 06, 2023·Freeski Park & Pipe
The 2023/24 FIS Freeski halfpipe World Cup season is open us, and this week we open the campaign back at the scene of Beijing 2022 Olympic in Secret Garden Genting Resort, where qualifications are set for Thursday, 7 December, followed up by finals on Saturday, 9 December, beginning at 11:00 local time.
Secret Garden is the first of five halfpipe World Cups on the calendar for this season, and below we’ll take a quick look at the venues before moving on to highlight some of the biggest names to watch out for over the next three months of action.
SECRET GARDEN - CHN - 07-09 DEC
The first stop on this season’s halfpipe World Cup takes us back to the site of some incredible memories from the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, as we return to what is one of the world’s very best halfpipes in Secret Garden. The only former Olympic halfpipe venue currently hosting tier 1 international competition, the Secret Garden pipe is deep, long and damn near perfect, and we’re looking forward to an explosive start to the season there in China.
Did we mention Beijing 2022 Olympic halfpipe gold medallist/global superstar Eileen Gu is set to return to action on Chinese soil for the first time since her Olympic triumphs inspired a nation? Because yeah, that’s also happening this week.
COPPER MOUNTAIN U.S. GRAND PRIX - USA - 13-15 DEC
Copper Mountain keeps bringing the goods, year in and year out, and last season was no exception as the resort welcomed it’s long-running Grand Prix halfpipe competition back again, while also adding big air World Cup action to its slopes for the first time since 2017/18. “The Athletes’ Mountain” has played host to halfpipe World Cup competition dating back to the 2012/13 season, and remains a highlight every year.
MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN U.S. GRAND PRIX - USA - 31 JAN - 4 FEB 2024
Once again Mammoth Mountain is set to host the biggest Park & Pipe week of the season, with the full freeski and snowboard, slopestyle and halfpipe World Cup tours slated to descend on the Californian resort for a packed week of action to take us into February. Mammoth is an OG FIS Freeski World Cup stop, with hosting duties dating back to the 2011/12 season, and the U.S. Grand Prix remains a legendary name in freeskiing and snowboarding. When the sun’s shining and Mammoth is firing, there’s few better places to be on earth.
CALGARY SNOW RODEO - CAN - 15-17 FEB 2024
The 2023/24 FIS Freeski halfpipe season will wrap up with a double-header at Calgary’s WinSport Canada Olympic Park, one of the most historic venues in all of freestyle skiing. Site of World Cup competition dating all the way back to 1981, there are few places on earth boasting a deeper freestyle pedigree than the Albertan city. A long list of the very finest freestylers and freeskiers to ever do it have made their mark in Calgary, including Eileen Gu, who claimed her first World Cup win there in 2019/20 and now has five total victories at the venue. With the crystal globes in the house and set to go out to the season’s best shredders, Calgary won’t be one to miss.
THE HEAVY HITTERS
WOMEN
EILEEN GU - CHN - 20
Simply put, she’s the most famous snowsports star on earth right now. Already on her way to stardom when she landed on the podium at her first World Cup back in 2019, Gu sent it to the stratosphere when she earned halfpipe gold, big air gold and slopestyle silver while representing China on home soil at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. Gu now spends her much of her time busy walking the runway in Paris, starring as the face of some of the biggest luxury brands on the planet, or studying quantum physics at Stanford University. However, when she’s not wrapped up in such trivial pursuits as those, she’s still a pretty good skier. Scratch that - she’s still the best damn skier in the freeski world, and while we might not see a lot of her this season, when we do we expect it’ll be at or near the top of the podium.
HANNA FAULHABER - USA - 19
One of the boostiest boosters to ever boost, Faulhaber last season graduated from a perhaps slightly one-dimensional amplitude junky to a full-on multi-directional weapon, culminating in the greatest success of her young career when she scored gold at the Bakuriani 2023 World Championships. With her list of strengths growing from competition to competition, we won’t be surprised of Faulhaber gives Gu a scare or two when the pair face off this season.
RACHAEL KARKER - CAN - 26
Olympic bronze medallist, two-time World Championships medallist, two-time crystal globe winner, four-time X Games medallist…Rachael Karker’s list of career accomplishments is as deep and varied as her trick repertoire. One of the most consistent performers in the history of World Cup halfpipe competition, Karker has hit the podium in 14 straight FIS competitions dating back to the start of the 2019/20 season, including bronze medals at both the Beijing 2022 Olympics and the Bakuriani 2023 World Championships. Karker is, quite simply, one of the greats.
ZHANG KEXIN - CHN - 21
With Eileen Gu getting more hype than any freeskier has in the history of the sport, it’s easy to forget that the Chinese team also boasts one of the most quietly consistent halfpipe skiers on the planet in Zhang Kexin. A top-3 finisher on the World Cup standings in four out of five competition seasons since she first arrived on the scene in 2017/18, Zhang might not be the biggest name in the sport right now, but if she keeps progressing as she did last season it’ll be hard to deny her spot here amongst the other heavy-hitters is a deserved one.
THE HEAVY HITTERS
MEN
NICO PORTEOUS - NZL - 22
There’s simply nobody in the world who skis a halfpipe like Nico Porteous - right now, or perhaps ever. He’s a magician, a showman, a maniac and a cold-blooded killer. He can do things in a stunt ditch on two planks that nobody else has ever dreamed of. He’s 22 years old and he’s the reigning Olympic champion and, if he feels like it, he can probably hold on to that title through to 2030. He’s a one-man army and every time he drops in on the pipe it’s a stop-what-you’re-doing-and-watch-this event.
BRENDAN MACKAY - CAN - 26
Like his Canadian teammate and long-time girlfriend Rachael Karker, Bakuriani 2023 World Champion Brendan Mackay has become one of the halfpipe world’s most dependable podium locks over the past several seasons. While Mackay ‘only’ has eight World Cup podiums in 33 starts, all eight of those podiums have come since the 2019/20 season. In fact, since he earned his first World Cup top-3 on home soil in Calgary in February 2020, Mackay has only missed a FIS podium once. Mackay sends it large, grabs it clean, and is one of only a handful of skiers in the world with a halfpipe 1620 to his name. There’s plenty more to come for this one.
BIRK IRVING - USA - 24
One of the most stylish halfpipe freeskiers you’re likely to ever see, Birk Irving brings a flavour to the proceedings like few others before him. He’s not just stylish, however, with his deceptively technical smorgasbord of tricks proving plenty tasty to the judges - as proven by his crystal globe win last season. The U.S. team is the strongest and most experienced pipe squad in the world, but last season Irving proved himself to be the team’s leader moving forward.
JON SALLINEN - FIN - 23
It’s been a minute since we’ve seen a world-class Scandinavian halfpipe talent, but last year Jon Sallinen announced his arrival as the next great hope from Europe’s frozen north. Earning his first World Cup win in Calgary in February, the 23-year-old followed that up by nabbing X Games bronze before becoming the first-ever Finnish halfpipe skier to hit the World Championships podium with a silver medal performance. Technical beyond belief and clean as the Finnish snow, Jon Sallinen is for real.
ALEX FERRIERA - USA - 29
With a personality as big as his trick repertoire, the man who spends his free time masquerading as the infamous Hotdog Hans remains one of the most well-respected and well-decorated halfpipe skiers in the world. A two-time Olympic medallist, two-time X Games winner, 2017/18 crystal globe winner, and last season’s Bakuriani 2023 World Championships bronze medallist, Ferriera lives for the big moments, and continues to get the job done time and time again once he’s in them.
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