All eyes on Secret Garden for start of Freeski Halfpipe World Cup season
Dec 09, 2025·Freeski Park & Pipe)
China’s Secret Garden is back in the spotlight this week as the FIS Freeski Halfpipe World Cup returns to the former Olympic venue to begin the 2025/26 campaign at one of the world’s biggest, best, and most storied halfpipe venues.
The Freeski Halfpipe season opener beginning on 11 December is one of three key qualifying events for the upcoming Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games – and will mark the first time Halfpipe skiers will start their World Cup season in a former Olympic venue when the world’s best drop into the Beijing 2022 Olympic pipe this week.
Leading the women’s field of 27 in Secret Garden is China’s Eileen Gu who comes into this week’s competition with a whole lot of past Secret Garden success to her credit. Having won Olympic gold here during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, the 22-year-old also enjoyed World Cup victories at Secret Garden in 2023 and 2024, as well as a victory at the inaugural Snow League Freeski competition just last week. Finally recovered from a slew of injuries in 2024/25 and aleady the most successful Halfpipe World Cup skier of all time with 14 victories to her credit, don’t bet against Gu making it 15 this weekend.
Gu’s biggest tests will come in the form of last season’s joint Crystal Globe winners Zoe Atkin (GBR) and Li Fanghui (CHN). The shared Globe between Atkin and Li marked the first time in FIS Freeski World Cup history that two skiers ended up with identical World Cup results of one victory, two second-place finishes, and a fifth-place finish. While the two shared top spot on the Globe podium at the end of the World Cup season, it was Atkin who played the trump card for best overall in women’s pipe that season, as she claimed Engadin 2025 World Championships gold ahead of Li at the final FIS event of 2024/25.
Li finished in third place at last week’s Snow League competition in Secret Garden, while Atkin sat out the competition due to illness. With Gu leading the way and Li on the bottom step of the podium, it was Zhang Kexin claiming runner-up to Gu to complete the Chinese sweep of the Snow League competition on home soil.
The 23-year-old Zhang previously won the Secret Garden World Cup in 2017 and 2018, and has finished in the top-10 in 24 of her 27 starts since making her World cup debut in 2017. With Atkin back in the mix this week and a return to standard World Cup competition format incoming after the more novel Snow League format, a repeat Chinese sweep, while possible, is unlikely.
Gu’s runner-up at Beijing 2022, Canada’s Cassie Sharpe, along with bronze medalist Rachael Karker (CAN), will also be on hand in Secret Garden. Both are likely to once again represent Canada at Milano Cortina 2026, which would be Karker’s second Games and Sharpe’s third Games, as 33-year-old Sharpe also won gold at the PyeongChang 2018 Games. Sharpe finished just off the podium in fourth at Secret Garden last year, while Karker saw her streak of 13 consecutive World Cup podiums end at that competition with a 15th place finish.
On the men’s side, two-time reigning Halfpipe Crystal Globe winner Alex Ferreira (USA) leads a powerhouse U.S. contingent of multi Olympic and X Games medalists. Ferreira’s record at Secret Garden includes bronze at Beijing 2022 and second place at the 2024 World Cup behind compatriot Nick Goepper – the first of two U.S. podium sweeps during the 2024/25 season featuring Ferreira and Goepper. Ferreira also topped the Secret Garden podium in 2023.
Before switching to Halfpipe in 2023, Goepper claimed one bronze and two silver medals in Slopestyle at the Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022 Games respectively, on top of four X Games gold medals in Slopestyle. When double Olympic Halfpipe champion and Beijing 2022 silver medalist David Wise completed last year’s sweep in Secret Garden behind Goepper and Ferreira, there were eight Olympic medals between the three men.
One skier who has already proven he can take on the U.S. Halfpipe powerhouse is New Zealand’s Finley Melville Ives. The 19-year-old outclassed Goepper and Ferreira at the 2025 World Championships to win gold in March, in a repeat of the World Cup podium in Calgary a month prior. Melville Ives’ victory in Calgary was also his first top-three result since joining the tour in 2022.
Canada’s Brendan Mackay will be looking to keep the momentum rolling from his Snow League victory last week and turn that into a strong World Cup start in Secret Garden after just missing out on a podium finish here in 2024 with fourth place. The 28-year-old also finished seventh at the Engadin 2025 World Championships after winning gold at the 2023 edition.
Others to watch out for this week are Snow League runner-up Luke Harrold (NZL) and third-place finisher Gus Kenworthy (GBR). Seventeen-year-old Harrold claimed his first – and so far, only – career podium at Secret Garden in his World Cup debut back in 2023/24, while Kenworthy will be dropping in on his first World Cup competition in four years as he makes one more Olympic bid at the age of 34.
Competition in Secret Garden will begin on Thursday 11 December with women’s qualifications from 9:10 China Standard Time (CST), followed by men’s qualifications from 11:25 CST. The top 10 women and top 14 men will progress to the finals on Saturday 13 December beginning at 11:00 CST.
)
