Halfpipe stars head to Copper as U.S. skiers ramp up efforts for Olympic qualification
Dec 16, 2025·Freeski Park & Pipe)
U.S. skiers are in the spotlight this week as they look to prove themselves at the next Halfpipe World Cup in Copper Mountain for a spot on the highly talented U.S. team for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
The Toyota U.S. Grand Prix beginning in Copper on Thursday is the second of five Halfpipe World Cup events this season.
Last season’s Halfpipe Crystal Globe winner Alex Ferreira (USA) leads a contingent of 18 U.S. skiers in the men’s field of 46 in Copper. Home snow advantage could prove talismanic for U.S. skiers this week given nine of the 14 men’s finalists at last week’s season opener in Secret Garden were U.S. skiers.
Ferreira did not compete in Secret Garden and begins his 2025/26 World Cup campaign in Copper looking for a three-peat after previously winning the event in 2024 and 2023, as well as in 2021. His Copper victory in 2024 was one of two victories and a total of five podium finishes during a Crystal Globe 2024/25 season. Ferreira currently leads the all-time men’s Freeski Halfpipe World Cup standings with 12 wins from a total of 20 podium finishes. Thanks to his Globe-winning performances last season, in June Ferreira became the first U.S. Freeski Halfpipe athlete to qualify for Milano Cortina 2026.
Teammate and three-time Olympic Slopestyle medalist Nick Goepper was third in Copper in 2024 and like Ferreira, will begin his 2025/26 season there after missing the Secret Garden event.
Goepper is targeting his fourth Games at Milano Cortina 2026 to hopefully add Olympic gold to his silver medals from PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022, as well as bronze from Sochi 2014. Since making the switch to halfpipe, Goepper has won a 2025 World Championships silver medal and secured four top-three World Cup finishes last season, including his first Halfpipe victory.
Double Olympic Halfpipe champion and Beijing 2022 silver medalist David Wise comes to Copper hoping to improve on his 12th place finish in Secret Garden on 13 December. Wise was fifth in Copper last year after previously winning the event in 2014 and 2017. Wise was also the third skier alongside runner-up Ferreira and winner Goepper on the Secret Garden podium in 2024, the first of two U.S. podium sweeps last World Cup season.
Hunter Hess was the only U.S. skier to finish on the podium in Secret Garden last week with third place, followed by Birk Irving in fourth, Matthew Labaugh in fifth, and Nick Geiser in sixth. Labaugh was the top qualifier going into the final, and last season the 21-year-old finished third in Aspen to give the USA its second podium sweep of the season alongside Ferreira in first place and Goepper in second. Labaugh’s Aspen result marked his first World Cup podium out of 22 starts since his tour debut in 2021.
Secret Garden winner Finley Melville Ives and fellow New Zealander and Secret Garden runner-up Luke Harrold will not compete in Copper. The U.S. delegation’s main challengers in Copper are Canada’s Andrew Longino and Dylan Marineau, who finished seventh and 15th respectively in Secret Garden. Fellow Canadian and 2023 World Champion Brendan Mackay is not competing in Copper after the 28-year-old finished last in the 14-man final in Secret Garden.
On the women’s side, last season’s joint women’s Halfpipe Crystal Globe winner Zoe Atkin (GBR) leads the field of 25 women in Copper. The 22-year-old British skier comes to Copper buoyed by her second-place finish in Secret Garden behind double Olympic champion Eileen Gu, who will not contest the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix this week. Fellow Chinese skier Li Fanghui shared the 2024/25 Halfpipe Globe with Atkin but began the new season with ninth place in Secret Garden. Teammate Zhang Kexin finished fifth in Secret Garden after previously winning the 2018 and 2017 editions.
Australia’s Indra Brown comes to Copper after her surprise third place in Secret Garden in what was the 15-year-old’s World Cup debut. Brown is the first Australian since 2014 to claim a top-three World Cup finish after Amy Sheehan was third in Beckenbridge (USA) that year.
Bakuriani 2023 World Champion Hanna Faulhaber is among 11 U.S. skiers contesting the women’s event in Copper. The 21-year-old briefly returned to competition in late 2024 after suffering a serious knee injury at the beginning of the year. This week’s competition marks Faulhaber’s first World Cup start since she was 19th in Copper in December 2024.
Faulhaber is joined by Svea Irving and Kate Gray, with the latter among seven U.S. skiers in Secret Garden who did not qualify for the women’s final. Irving on the other hand begins her 2025/26 season in Copper after she was fifth in the overall Halfpipe World Cup rankings last season. Irving finished in the top-five in all five of her World Cup starts last season, including third in Secret Garden and narrowly missing out on further podiums with three fourth-place finishes in Cardrona (NZL), Copper and Aspen.
Competition in Copper begins on Thursday 18 December with women’s qualifications from 9:30 Mountain Standard Time (MST), followed by men’s qualifications from 11:55 MST. The top eight women and top 10 men from Thursday’s qualifications will progress to the finals on Saturday 20 December.
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