2025/26 FIS Freeski Slopestyle World Cup season preview

Nov 14, 2025·Freeski Park & Pipe

Photo: @fisparkandpipe

The start of the 2025/26 Freeski Park & Pipe World Cup season is almost upon us, with Slopestyle competition in Stubai (AUT) kicking off on 21 November to mark the first of five events over the next five months.

The first three Slopestyle World Cup events of the season all serve as qualifying events for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in February, so you can expect the world’s best park skiers to be pushing the sport even further as they chase their medal dreams.

2025/26 FREESKI SLOPESTYLE CALENDAR

Stubai is no stranger to Slopestyle World Cup opening acts having already hosted eight northern hemisphere season openers at its world famous Stubai Zoo snowpark. The stakes will be even higher when the ninth edition of the World Cup begins on 21 November as skiers enter the home stretch of Olympic qualification.

From Austria we head into the Christmas break before the slopestyle World Cup campaign resumes after the new year on 7 January in Aspen, USA. The Freeski and Snowboard slopestyle competitions at the 2026 U.S. Grand Prix in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains will be two of the 10 FIS events going down as Olympic qualifiers in the United States this coming season.

After Aspen, all eyes will be on Laax (SUI) for the 11th edition of the prestigious Laax Open starting on 15 January. Already considered the biggest freeski and snowboard event on the European circuit, this one is set to be even more spectacular given it is the last Slopestyle World Cup before the Olympic Quota Allocation List is published on 19 January.

After Laax we take a break from the World Cup circuit to focus on the biggest event of the last four years – the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, where Freeski Slopestyle will have the honor of kicking off all Olympic Freestyle Skiing competition on 7 February.

Once the Games are over, the World Cup campaign resumes in Tignes (FRA) on 17 March for the penultimate event of the Slopestyle season. The French resort previously hosted the 2024/25 season finale, but in 2026 the final showdown to decide who walks away with the discipline’s Crystal Globe returns to Silvaplana (SUI) starting on 25 March.

Besides last season, when the resort hosted the Engadin 2025 World Championships, the Corvatsch ski area has served as the World Cup Slopestyle season finale every winter from 2012/13 to 2023/24, and long ago established itself as one of the favourite venues for the world’s top riders.

SKIERS TO WATCH: WOMEN

Usually a new season would bring another opportunity for France’s Tess Ledeux to top the Slopestyle World Cup standings, as she did last season for the second time in her career. But the 23-year-old is missing the start of the 2025/26 campaign – her 10th World Cup season – due to injury. Lexeux claimed the 2024/25 Crystal Globe despite not competing in the Slopestyle season finale after suffering a heavy fall while competing in the Big Air final. Before being sidelined by injury, Ledeux racked her career victories total up to 17 thanks to slopestyle wins in Stubai and Tignes. Ledeux also won her third Slopestyle gold medal at the X Games Aspen 2025, for a total of seven X Games gold medals across Slopestyle and Big Air.

Italian teenager Flora Tabanelli is also missing the start of the World Cup season after revealing she has begun rehabilitation for a torn ACL injury in the hope she will recover in time for the Milano Cortina 2026 Games. The 17-year-old ended last season with the Big Air and overall women’s Park & Pipe Crystal Globes after collecting seven podiums from 11 starts, including a maiden Slopestyle win in Stoneham (CAN). Tabanelli then narrowly missed out on a Slopestyle medal in Engadin by finishing fourth, but that did not stop her from becoming Big Air World Champion days later.

Last season was a bit of a mixed bag for Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud after becoming the first woman in FIS history to win three Globes in a single season in 2023/24. After starting the 2024/25 season with two podium finishes, injuries got the better of the Beijing 2022 Slopestyle champion and she did not contest the last two World Cup events. Time away from competition did Gremaud good, though, because when the 25-year-old did come back, she went straight to the top of the Slopestyle podium at the 2025 FIS Freeski Slopestyle World Championships in Engadin (SUI) – making it back-to-back world titles for the Swiss skier.

Rell Harwood (USA) was a bit of a dark horse last season after securing two third-place World Cup finishes – her best World Cup performance since her tour debut in 2017. The 24-year-old American also won gold in knuckle huck at the 2025 X Games. It will be interesting to see how Harwood has progressed when the 2025/26 season begins.

While it might have seemed like Austrian skier Lara Wolf came out of nowhere when she took silver behind Gremaud at the 2025 World Championships, she had really just come out of retirement energized and motivated. Wolf had hung up the bib at the end of the 2022/23 season, before re-emerging midway through last winter and promptly earning third place at Big Air Kreischberg. Wolf is also well acquainted with the intensity of Olympic qualification events – the 25-year-old previously competed at the PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

Before taking Slopestyle bronze at the 2025 World Championships behind Wolf and Gremaud, Canada’s Megan Oldham had also racked up two noteworthy second-place finishes at the Laax and Aspen World Cup events – as well as an outright Big Air victory in Aspen. The 24-year-old also has one Slopestyle gold and two bronze from the X Games to her name.

Finally, do not forget about China’s Eileen Gu. While the 22-year-old three-time Olympic medalist did not compete in many Slopestyle World Cup events last season, when she did, she made it count by winning the 2025 Laax Open. The Beijing 2022 Halfpipe and Big Air champion – as well as the Slopestyle silver medalist – already has a full dance card, but Gu has also said she’s a Slopestyle skier at heart. Look for Gu to be getting in as many reps as possible in the lead-up towards what could be for her a massive Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

SKIERS TO WATCH: MEN

Winning a second consecutive World Championships title in Engadin didn’t come easy for Norway’s Birk Ruud, whose results last World Cup season varied from first place at Laax to 15th place in Tignes. After breaking his ankle in the summer of 2024, it took until the latter part of the 2024/25 season for the Norwegian to feel completely comfortable. If Engadin is anything to go by, the 25-year-old is back and better than ever – days after his Slopestyle victory, Ruud also took bronze in Big Air, making it five career medals since his first World Championships in 2019.

After Ruud, the rest of the Slopestyle podium in Engadin consisted of runner-up Mac Forehand (USA) and bronze medalist Alex Hall (USA). Hall’s season also included the Slopestyle Crystal Globe to add to his 2025 X Games knuckle huck gold and his Beijing 2022 Slopestyle gold medals. Forehand also won a second consecutive bronze in Slopestyle at the 2025 X Games.

The strength of the U.S. team continues down the list, as Colby Stevenson enjoyed a solid start to the 2024/25 season with a win in Stubai, followed by second place in Aspen. He ultimately finished third in the Slopestyle rankings behind Swiss skier Andri Ragettli, who was runner-up in Stubai and again at the season finale in Tignes.

The 27-year-old Ragettli also narrowly missed out on bronze in Engadin with fourth place after previously taking bronze in 2023 and winning the 2021 edition. At the 2025 X Games Ragettli claimed silver in Slopestyle, and with 24 top-three World Cup finishes, Ragettli has more FIS Freeski podiums than any other athlete in World Cup history.

It will be interesting to see how the rivalry between Austrian skier Matej Svancer and New Zealander Luca Harrington evolves in Slopestyle this season after Svancer beat Harrington by just two points to win the 2024/25 overall Park & Pipe Globe. Svancer counted one Slopestyle win in Stoneham (CAN) among his three World Cup victories last season, while Harrington was runner-up to Svancer in Big Air once and beat the Austrian on home snow twice in Klagenfurt and Kreischberg. Harrington won Slopestyle gold at the 2025 X Games, while Svancer claimed X Games silver in men’s knuckle huck.