Muir and Podmilsak win Secret Garden Big Air World Cup season opener
Nov 29, 2025·Freeski Park & Pipe)
Bakuriani 2023 World Champion Troy Podmilsak (USA) claimed his first World Cup victory in China’s Secret Garden on Saturday, while Great Britain’s Kirsty Muir topped the women’s event to start the 2025/26 World Cup season the way she finished her 2024/25 World Cup campaign.
Both skiers’ victories came after the Freeski Big Air finals were moved one day forward from Sunday to Saturday due to forecasted inclement weather.
In the women's field, Scottish skier Muir’s win on Saturday came seven months after she ended her 2024/25 season by earning her first career World Cup victory at the season finale in Tignes (FRA).
The 21-year-old Muir topped the women’s final with a score of 174.50, after starting off the final impressively with a left double cork 1440 safety in her first run which earned her 91.25 from the judges – the highest scoring single trick of the morning for the women.
While Muir’s second run score of 80.25 for her right double cork 1080 mute was already enough to secure victory, she did not hold back in her victory lap, returning to the trick in her third run for a score of 83.25, ending the contest with a bang and bumping up her overall total.
Muir said she went into the final focused on her tricks rather than winning.
“Overall I’m just so, so happy with how I skied, that’s what I’m going to take away from this.”
Second place for the women went to Canada’s Naomi Urness with a score of165.75, who claimed her first career World Cup podium in just her fifth World Cup start. With clean and stylish right double cork 1080 mute and switch right double bio 1080 mutes to her credit, Urness showed she’s one to watch as the season progresses.
Stomping both left and right double cork 1260 safety grabs, China’s Liu Mengting secured a home-soil third place finish with a score of 165.25. Liu’s result on Saturday follows her first World Cup victory in Klagenfurt (AUT) last season.
Finland’s Anni Karava finished in fourth place on Saturday, a week after she was third at the Slopestyle World Cup season opener in Stubai (AUT). Swiss skier and PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Slopestyle gold medallist Sarah Hoefflin finished last in the eight-woman final after crashing in her first run.
Podmilsak claimed victory in the men's event on Saturday thanks to two high scoring runs which gave him a total of 185.50.
The 21-year-old ensured he was a contender for a podium with a run one score of 90.25 for his switch right trip 1980 safety 90.25, then followed up with a right trip 2160 mute in his second run, earning him 95.25 and pole position ahead of Canada’s Dylan Deschamps on 178.50.
Last season’s Big Air Crystal Globe winner Luca Harrington (NZL) was third with 176.00.
Podmilsak’s win on Saturday marks his first World Cup victory since joining the tour in 2019. His previous World Cup podium came in 2022 when he finished third in Chur (SUI). However, the U.S. skier came into Secret Garden with some even bigger trophies to his credit, as he was just 18 when he landed the world's first forward triple cork 2160 to become the 2023 Big Air World Champion, and then followed that up with X Games Big Air gold in 2024.
”It feels nice to come out on top, in the first World Cup (of the 2025/26 season).”
The Big Air World Cup in Secret Garden is also the first of three key qualifying events for the upcoming Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in February. Podmilsak is one of seven U.S. skiers competing for a coveted spot on the U.S. men’s Olympic Freeski team this season.
“It definitely takes off a lot of pressure for me. I think the U.S. team is the strongest team right now, for sure the hardest team to qualify, so a lot of pressure off coming into the next qualifiers.”
The next Big Air World Cup begins on 4 December in Beijing.
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