Snow Rodeo double header to end freeski halfpipe World Cup season in Calgary
Feb 15, 2024·Freeski Park & Pipe
The 2023/24 FIS Freeski halfpipe World Cup season is set to come to a close this week at one of freestyle skiing’s most historic venues, where the season’s top skiers will be chasing the crystal globe over three days of competition at Winsport Canada Olympic Park for the 2024 Calgary Snow Rodeo.
Competition will be dropping in on the Snow Rodeo on Thursday, where we’ve got women’s qualifications beginning at 9:50 local time and men’s q’s at 11:30, followed by nighttime finals starting at 19:00. We’ll continue on on Friday with a mellower day of qualifications only, before we finish the halfpipe season off on Saturday night with the second finals of the week, once again under the lights at 19:00.
GU LOOKING TO CONTINUE CALGARY DOMINANCE
Ahead of the Snow Rodeo it’s the most dominant woman the 43-year history of Calgary World Cup competition leading the halfpipe standings with 280 points, as Eileen Gu (CHN) rolls into town looking for her third and fourth wins of the season and what would potentially be her seventh and eighth victories at Canada Olympic Park.
Only the great Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) has had more success in Calgary than Gu, though the Canadian moguls skier has racked up his nine victories here over the course of a decade. For Gu, it’s taken less than half that time.
However, Gu comes into Calgary on the heels of a second-place finish at the shortened Mammoth Mountain Toyota U.S. Grand Prix two weeks ago, where windy weather forced the cancellation of finals and lead to qualification results standing as the official results of the competition.
That runner-up result halted Gu’s record halfpipe win streak at nine, and she’ll be keen to restart another run of success this week at the Snow Rodeo while locking in what should be her second career halfpipe crystal globe.
Taking home her first career World Cup victory there in Mammoth was Canada’s own Amy Fraser, who sits second in the halfpipe rankings behind Gu with 205 points. Fraser has a third and a fifth place to go along with her win so far this season, and this week she’ll be looking to carry the momentum from Mammoth through to Calgary as she chases her first World Cup podium on home soil.
While the current women’s third-ranked halfpipe skier Hanna Faulhaber is out for the remainder of the season with an injury, both fourth-ranked Riley Jacobs (USA) and fifth-ranked Zoe Atkin (GBR) are on hand here in Calgary and more than capable of leapfrogging Faulhaber - and possibly Fraser - into a place on the the season’s overall top-3 by competition end on Saturday.
FIRING FERREIRA ON THE HUNT FOR PERFECT SEASON
For the men it’s all eyes on veteran Alex Ferreira of the USA as he looks to carry a so-far perfect 2023/24 season across the finish line intact.
With victories in three-of-three World Cup starts so far this campaign, as well as an X Games win from three weeks ago, Ferreira is in the midst of a historic run in 2023/24. Only one other man has achieved a streak of three straight World Cup halfpipe wins, and that was Kalle Leinonen (FIN) who accomplished the feat back in the 2005/06 and 2006/07 seasons.
Should Ferreira keep his success going through at least Thursday’s competition, he’ll put himself into the record books as the first and only male freeskier to lock down four straight World Cup victories in a row. Should he then follow that up with a fifth 2023/24 win on Saturday, he’ll have accomplished the remarkable, putting together the first perfect crystal globe season in men’s freeski halfpipe history.
There will of course be a few obstacles standing in his way this week, and many of those obstacles will also be flying the stars and stripes of the U.S. Freeski Team.
The U.S. team has swept both of the last two men’s World Cup podiums, and in both of those efforts it was Hunter Hess taking the runner-up spot on the podium behind Ferreira. Throw in a third-place finish at the X Games in Aspen a few weeks ago and Hess is putting together the type of breakout campaign that’s a close second to Ferreira’s in terms of hype generated for the U.S. team.
Then there’s Nick Goepper, who’s all of two World Cups into his transformation to becoming a halfpipe skier, and already has his first podium from the Mammoth Grand Prix two weeks ago. With fourth place finishes at his halfpipe career kick off in Copper Mountain and at the X Games, Goepper has wasted no time finding a spot amongst the halfpipe world’s elite.
With two-time Olympic gold medallist David Wise, two-time World Champion Aaron Blunck, two-time X Games medallist Birk Irving, and a whole gang of up-and-comers on hand, the U.S. team is rolling deep.
The host Canadians will have something to say about the possibility of any more U.S. sweeps happening this week, however, especially with reigning World Champion Brendan Mackay now two competitions into his return to action after missing the first half of the season due to university obligations. Mackay should be rounding back into form this week, and he’ll be looking for a third career victory (and fifth career podium) here on home soil in Calgary.
Also keep an eye on the young-gun New Zealand squad, with Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Games respective gold and silver medallists Luke Harrold and Finley Melville Ives leading the way. 15-year-old Harrold currently sits third overall on the men’s World Cup standings and already has a World Cup podium from the Secret Garden competition back in December, while 17-year-old Melville Ives is knocking at the door himself. The future is bright for the Kiwis.
Finally, look to Jon Sallinen to step it up this week, as last season’s halfpipe World Championships silver medallist seeks to end what has been an up and down season on a positive note. Sallinen has one career World Cup victory, and it came here in Calgary last season. The 23-year-old will be hoping to harness a little of that magic once again in the coming days.
Finals for both Thursday and Saturday will be available on FIS TV, as well as on our YouTube channel (with geo-restrictions). We’re also hoping to have a qualification stream available, so stay tuned to our social media channels tomorrow and Friday for that.
QUICK LINKS
Calgary Snow Rodeo halfpipe World Cup data page (start lists, livescoring, results)
