Travinicheva and Khurtin win the golds in PGS at junior world championships

The FIS Snowboard Alpine Junior World Championships 2026 in Folgaria, Italy continued on Saturday with the individual parallel giant slalom races. 

The course set up was great with nice wide turns according to FIS officials. Conditions were fair with hard snow despite the sunny day. The fans turned out again in the finish area for a great day of snowboard racing. 

In the end it was two Individual Neutral Athletes who took the top spots on the podium as Mariia Travinicheva (AIN) and Ilia Khurtin (AIN) grabbed the golds.

Travinicheva takes the top spot in women’s PGS

On the women’s side, it was filled with fast-paced action. 

The semifinals brought the drama. Second fastest-qualifier Lanxi Wei (CAN) had a great day but was edged out by Travinicheva. In the other semifinal, Xenia von Siebenthal continued her dominant day with a win against Ina Reichelmeir (GER). 

Travinicheva then put down a great run to edge von Siebenthal in the big final.

Von Siebenthal came in as the highest ranked athlete before the competition. Her silver goes along with two golds and one bronze medal from her past junior world championship appearances. 

The win was the first world championship medal for Travinicheva. 

In the small final, Wei bounced back with a great race to take third place and win the small final by 0.03 seconds. It was her first world championship medal. 

Reichelmeir settled for fourth place. 

Anita Raycheva (BUL) had a solid day as the lead Bulgarian woman. She was eliminated in the quarterfinals. 

The highlights of round one included a home upset as 12-seed Anna Victoria Mammone (ITA) knocked out 5-seed Salome Jansing (GER). Mammone then lost in the quarterfinals to von Siebenthal. 

The main stunner came later as fastest-qualifier Mathilda Scheid (GER) held a lead but fell at the penultimate gate, suffering a DNF in round one. 

Earlier in the day on the women’s side, yesterday’s silver medalist Akina Kizuka (USA) qualified 18th, just missing the knockout rounds. Rowan Sweeney (CAN) and Bilyana Zamfirova (BUL) also just missed out.

Khurtin pulls off the stunner to win men’s PGS

The men’s races heated up as they went, especially in the semifinal round.

The headline matchup in the semifinals between Tommy Rabanser (ITA) and Walker Overstake (USA) lived up to the hype with Overstake using late speed to advance to the big final. 

Rabanser gave the home crowd something to cheer about with a win in the small final. The third-place finish gives Rabanser a third junior world championships medal after two silvers in 2025. 

The other semifinal matchup was also hard-fought as Khurtin advanced past Krystok Minarik (CZE) after the Czech rider missed the last gate. 

Khurtin then dueled it out with Overstake for the gold medal. Overstake made a late mistake allowing Khurtin to take the win. It is Khurtin's first world championship medal.

It is also the first individual medal for Overstake. Overstake has had a great month after placing fourth in a senior World Cup race in Val St. Come in March. 

Minarik settled for fourth, after a third-place finish in PGS in 2025. 

Earlier on, Italian teammates Tobias Mutschlechner (ITA) and Manuel Haller (ITA) did well but suffered DNF’s in the quarterfinal round. Yesterday’s gold-medal winner Ondrej Tulach (CZE) qualified seventh and was knocked out by Khurtin. 

In the qualifying session, Nuri Mosca (SUI) highlighted one of the higher seeds who missed out on the knockout rounds by qualifying 25th. 

There was also an opening ceremony after the racing today. The event was moved to Saturday due to windy conditions.

On Sunday the athletes will return to the slope for parallel slalom racing and another chance at medals. The qualifying will occur in the morning at 9:00 local time with the finals coming later in the afternoon at 12:45 in Folgaria. 

Check out the full results and schedule from Folgaria here.

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