Freeski Slopestyle stars reunite for Stubai season opener

Nov 19, 2025·Freeski Park & Pipe

Training ahead of the Stubai Slopestyle World Cup in Austria. Photo: David Tributsch

A strong collection of the world’s best freeskiers have reunited in Stubai (AUT) for the start of the 2025/26 FIS Freeski World Cup season and the first of three key Slopestyle qualifying events for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

Reigning world champions Mathilde Gremaud (SUI) and Birk Ruud (NOR) are among 96 skiers set to drop into Stubai Zoo snowpark when the first FIS Freeski Slopestyle World Cup of the season begins in Stubai with women’s qualifications on Thursday 20 November from 13:00 Central European Time (CET).

Originally scheduled to begin on Friday, organisers moved the women’s qualifications forward by one day due to forecasted weather conditions. Men’s qualifications remain scheduled to begin on Friday 21 November.

With just three World Cup slopestyle events and less than 80 days until the qualification period for Milano Cortina 2026 closes, many eyes will be on Stubai to see how the discipline’s best have prepared for an Olympic year.

Twenty-five-year-old Gremaud leads the women’s field of 33 athletes after the Swiss skier became World Champion a second time in March at the Engadin 2025 FIS Freeski World Championships.

Before winning gold on home snow in Engadin, Gremaud missed the latter part of the 2024/25 season due to injury after opening her campaign with a Big Air win and a Slopestyle second-place finish in Chur and Stubai respectively. Her only other podium finish during last World Cup season was third place at Laax, in contrast to her 2023/24 season in which Gremaud became the first woman in FIS history to win three Crystal Globes in a single season.

Gremaud is also the reigning women’s Olympic Slopestyle champion with a full collection of medals thanks to bronze in Big Air from the Beijing 2022 Games and silver in Slopestyle from PyeongChang 2018.

Last season’s winner in Stubai and the discipline’s Globe winner Tess Ledeux (FRA) will unfortunately miss the opening World Cup due to injury, as will 2024/25 Freeski Overall Crystal Globe winner Flora Tabanelli. Ledeux is still recovering from a concussion she sustained in March, while 17-year-old Tabanelli is recovering from an ACL tear. Both skiers hope to be able to return to competition in time for Milano Cortina 2026.

Even without Ledeux and Tabanelli in Stubai, there will still be plenty of competition from Sarah Hoefflin (SUI), who finished third behind Gremaud at the previous edition, and China’s Eileen Gu. Hoefflin, 34, secured silver in Big Air at the 2025 World Championships in March and is an Olympic Slopestyle gold medalist from the PyeongChang 2018 Games. The veteran skier was previously runner-up in Stubai in 2021 and 2018.

Gu, 22, is competing in Stubai for the first time since 2020. Last season the triple Beijing 2022 medalist – gold in Halfpipe and Big Air, and silver in Slopestyle – competed in just one Slopestyle World Cup, winning the Laax Open in spectacular fashion.

Other athletes to watch in the women’s field include Austria’s own Lara Wolf and Canada’s Megan Oldham. Wolf took silver behind Gremaud at the 2025 World Championships, while Oldham claimed bronze. Wolf, 25, came out of retirement midway through last season after hanging up her bib in 2023. Twenty-four-year-old Oldham has narrowly missed out on a podium finish in Stubai twice with fourth-place finishes in 2020 and 2022. Last season Oldham was runner-up at Laax and Aspen to Gu and Ledeux respectively, and topped Big Air in Aspen.

Rell Harwood is among a total of 14 U.S. skiers across the women’s and men’s fields who will kick off the USA’s Slopestyle campaign in Stubai. Harwood, 24, enjoyed her best World Cup season in 2024/25 with two third-place finishes in Aspen and Stoneham, as well as gold in knuckle huck at the X Games Aspen 2025.

In the men’s competition, reigning Olympic champion and 2024/25 Globe winner Alex Hall is one of nine U.S. skiers from a total of 63 men. After topping the discipline standings last season with two victories and one third-place finish from five starts, Hall went on to claim bronze at the Engadin 2025 World Championships. Compatriot Mac Forehand took silver ahead of Hall in Engadin, and last year Forehand narrowly missed out on a podium finish in Stubai with fourth place. In first place was fellow U.S. skier Colby Stevenson, whose record at Stubai includes three podiums from six starts.

Before winning a second consecutive World Championships title in Engadin, Norwegian skier Birk Ruud’s season ranged from winning the Laax Open to 15th place in Tignes. The 25-year-old seems to have put his ankle injury firmly behind him as he chases a second Olympic Winter Games after his gold in Big Air at Beijing 2022.

With 24 top-three World Cup finishes, Swiss skier Andri Ragettli has more FIS Freeski slopestyle podiums than any other athlete in World Cup history. The 27-year-old was runner-up at the 2024 edition in Stubai, and won the event in 2020. This year marks Ragettli’s sixth World Cup event in Stubai since 2018, and he has never finished outside of the top-five at the venue.

New Zealand’s Luca Harrington finished fifth at Stubai last year in what appears to be a steady evolution from 38th in 2020, to 11th in 2023. Harrington has never won a Slopestyle World Cup but came close with second place in Stoneham (CAN) in February. Harrington won the 2024/25 Big Air Globe on the way to becoming Big Air World Champion in Engadin in March.

The top eight skiers from women’s qualifications on Thursday will progress to the finals beginning at 11:00 CET on Saturday 22 November.

For the men, the top 16 skiers from Friday’s qualifications are slated to drop in on Saturday’s finals.