2025/26 FIS Freeski Big Air World Cup season preview

Nov 10, 2025·Freeski Park & Pipe

Photo: @fisparkandpipe

Freeski Big Air is about to head into one of its fiercest seasons yet as the world’s top skiers head to Secret Garden (CHN) for the start of the 2025/26 FIS Freeski Big Air World Cup season on 28 November.

This year there are four World Cup events compared to six last season, but every drop-in counts with the first three stops of the tour serving as qualifiers for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in February.

A stacked field of multi discipline, multi Olympic medal and multi Crystal Globe-winning skiers will lead the charge, while some hungry and talented up-and-coming challengers will no doubt keep things interesting over the next five months.

2025/26 FREESKI BIG AIR CALENDAR

Secret Garden in China has the privilege of hosting this season’s opening act on 28 November. This will be the first time the Chinese resort is hosting a Big Air World Cup – a testament to how far it has come since it hosted its first FIS World Cup for Freeski and Snowboard Halfpipe in 2017. Now a firm fixture on the international snow sports circuit, the venue has not left the spotlight since it hosted the Halfpipe, Slopestyle, Ski and Snowboard Cross, Aerials and Moguls events during the Beijing 2022 Games.

Staying in China, the next stop after Secret Garden is Beijing and its iconic Big Air Shougang venue. The jump here was the setting for some of the most boundary-pushing performances ever seen during the Beijing 2022 Games, including Chinese skier Eileen Gu’s Big Air gold medal, the first of three medals she collected at Beijing 2022.

From China we head to Steamboat in Colorado, USA for the last of the Olympic qualifiers and the penultimate stop of the 2025/26 FIS Freeski Big Air World Cup season. The Visa Big Air event beginning on 11 December marks the second time that Steamboat has hosted a Big Air World Cup after also hosting one back in 2021 ahead of the Beijing 2022 Games.

After the World Cup in Steamboat finishes on 13 December, skiers will enjoy a few weeks off before finding out who will compete at Milano Cortina 2026 when the Olympic Qualification Quota is published on 19 January 2026. Olympic Big Air competition kicks off on 14 February at Livigno Snow Park, about 230 kilometers north of Milano.

Following the Milano Cortina 2026 Games, the World Cup tour resumes on 17 March in Tignes (FRA) for the Big Air World Cup season finale. This will be the third consecutive year that the French ski resort is hosting the final World Cup and serving as the setting for the Big Air Crystal Globe awards ceremony.

SKIERS TO WATCH: WOMEN

At just 17 years of age, Italian skier Flora Tabanelli ended the 2024/25 FIS Freeski World Cup season with two Crystal Globe trophies in Big Air and overall Park & Pipe. To cap off a spectacular season where she finished in the top three of all six Big Air starts, including two outright victories, Tabanelli then went on to become the Engadin 2025 Big Air World Champion, after narrowly missing out on a Slopestyle medal days earlier with a fourth place finish. Tabanelli also won Big Air gold at her X Games Aspen 2025 debut.

Sharing the Big Air World Cup podium with Tabanelli on three occasions last season was Finland’s Anni Karava. The 25-year-old was runner-up to Tabanelli in Kreischberg, then third behind second-placed Tabanelli in Aspen. Karava ended the season in Tignes with a second third-place finish for a total of three podiums from six Big Air starts. At the 2025 World Championships Karava again shared the podium with gold medalist Tabanelli after claiming bronze.

France’s Tess Ledeux will miss the beginning of the 2025/26 season due to injury but remains hopeful she will be back in time to qualify for Milano Cortina 2026. Last season the 23-year-old finished second behind Tabanelli in the Big Air World Cup standings despite contesting only four of the six events on the calendar. Of her four starts, Ledeux topped the field in Beijing and was runner-up to Tabanelli on home snow in Tignes even though a heavy fall in her third run would force Ledeux to pull out of competition at the Engadin 2025 World Championships. If Ledeux is back in competition form ahead of Milano Cortina 2026, these Games will be her third after her Big Air silver medal at Beijing 2022 and her Olympic debut as a 16-year-old at the PyeongChang 2018 Games.

At 34 years old, Swiss skier Sarah Hoefflin still has plenty left in the tank after ending last season with a silver medal at the 2025 World Championships. For a brief moment it even looked like Hoefflin would be World Champion, as the veteran skier posted a first run high score that no one was able to beat until Tabanelli’s third run pushed the Swiss veteran to second place. In the lead up to Engadin, Hoefflin was runner-up at the Beijing World Cup ahead of teen sensation Tabanelli. Hoefflin’s rare ability to spin high rotation double corks in all four directions, along with her 2018 Olympic gold medal in Slopestyle, should help her be a major player in Big Air again this coming season.

After Swiss skier Mathilde Gremaud became the first woman in FIS history to win three Globes in a single season in 2023/24, last season proved more difficult for the 25-year-old. Her win at the 2024/25 Big Air World Cup season opener at Chur (SUI) in front of a home crowd was her only top-three finish out of four Big Air starts before injuries ruled her out of the season's last two events. When she came back, however, she did it in a big way to win Slopestyle gold at the 2025 World Championships to make it back-to-back titles, but was unable to repeat that success in Big Air. However, experience is on Gremaud’s side when it comes to Milano Cortina 2026 as the reigning Slopestyle Olympic champion and a Beijing 2022 Big Air silver medallist, and the 25-year-old has proved time and again that she saves her best performances for the biggest moments.

She may not have competed in any Big Air events since becoming Olympic champion at Beijing 2022, but that doesn’t rule out triple threat skier Eileen Gu (CHN) from attacking the 2025/26 season with everything she’s got ahead of what could be her second Olympic Winter Games. Now 22, Gu was 18 when she won gold in Big Air and Halfpipe at Beijing 2022 on top of claiming silver in Slopestyle. Arguably the most talented woman to ever strap on a pair of twin-tipped skis, Gu has the ability to beat anybody in the world when she puts her mind to it – and the mental fortitude to get it done under the most extreme pressure.

Another Chinese freeskier to look out for this season is Liu Mengting. The 21-year-old beat a strong field to top the Big Air Klagenfurt podium in January to claim her second World Cup career podium after she was runner-up behind Gremaud at the Tignes season finale in 2024.

SKIERS TO WATCH: MEN

New Zealand’s Luca Harrington had an astonishing breakout season in 2024/25. Harrington claimed the Big Air Crystal Globe thanks to four podium finishes, including two wins, from four starts, which the 21-year-old then followed up by claiming World Championships Big Air gold at Engadin 2025. In between his exceptional World Cup performances he also won gold in Slopestyle and silver in Big Air at his X Games debut. Harrington also has a Youth Olympic Winter Games bronze in Halfpipe from 2020, although it’s been a minute since he last competed in the pipe.

Matej Svancer (AUT) was runner-up to Harrington for the Globe after a season in which the Austrian topped two Big Air World Cup events for a total of four podium finishes from six starts. He also secured bronze in Big Air and silver in knuckle huck at the 2025 X Games. The 21-year-old was forced to sit out competition during the final Big Air World Cup in Tignes due to a bruised heel but had enough points to win the overall men’s Park & Pipe Globe, beating Harrington by just two points.

Italian skier Miro Tabanelli – the older half of the talented Tabanelli freeski power duo – will leave no stone unturned as he gears up for his first Olympic Winter Games in front of a home crowd. After a mixed bag of performances that netted him one second place finish out of five starts, Miro ended the 2024/25 season in spectacular fashion by joining his younger sister atop the Tignes podium after scoring his first World Cup victory of his career.

However, Miro’s most important performance of the season came in the Big Air competition at the 2025 X Games,where the 20-year-old became the first freeskier on the planet to land a 2340 in competition on his way to claiming gold in his debut X Games.

Swiss skier Andri Ragettli finished in the top five in all but one of his five Big Air World Cup starts last season, with two fourth-place and two fifth-place finishes. The 27-year-old’s endeavours in Big Air have so far yielded nine World Cup podiums, including one win, and three X Games medals, including gold in 2021. Ragettli has already won almost every Slopestyle title there is to win, and the hardest working man in Freeskiing continues to prove himself among the best in the world in the ceaselessly progressive Big Air format, as well.

Other skiers to watch this season are Tormod Frostad (NOR), Elias Syrja (FIN), and Alex Hall (USA). Frostad was runner-up at last season’s opener in Chur behind Svancer, then won Big Air Beijing by beating Miro Tabanelli by 0.75 points. Syrja, on the other hand, narrowly missed out on World Cup podiums with fourth place at Chur and Kresichberg, then stormed to silver at the 2025 World Championships. As for Hall, though he finished well down the leaderboard in 2024/25, his 2023/24 Big Air Crystal Globe win is not so far in the rearview mirror that we should forget about the 27-year-old’s uncanny ability to excel on any freeski feature he focuses his attention on.