SBX Race Director Beier excited by "fantastic Olympic venue"

Throughout the season, we have been speaking to FIS Race and Contest Directors with a view to upcoming events. And right now, the athletes and organizers are completing their final preparations for the Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games.

Snowboard Cross is one of the most competitive disciplines with riders from several nations scoring points and achieving podium finishes. Race Director Uwe Beier gives his opinion on the season so far, and looks forward to the Winter Olympics and beyond.

How excited have you been by the World Cup action so far this season?

Beier: I’m satisfied with the events we’ve had. First we had Cervinia (ITA) and the early season is always good there with an experienced organizer and a nice course. We saw very challenging heats and tight finishes. We also had a good test event for the team format, that we are not having so often at the moment.

Then we went to China where we had the two good individual events. A bit of a shorter course, but on a really high level in terms of features, so everybody was happy about that overall. We will go hopefully go back to China for one of two stops in Snowboard Cross (SBX) in the lead-up to the World Championships in Genting in 2029.

We unfortunately lost two destinations in January, but we’re now looking forward to the Olympics as the peak of the season, and then a great second half of the World Cup with a lot of events coming up in Türkiye, in Montefon (AUT), and last but not least Mt. St. Anne in Canada.

The action itself and the races have been really good with an extremely high level of riding. We had tight battles, clean aggressive racing, several photo finishes, exactly everything what makes SBX such a dynamic product. And the fight for the Crystal Globes is pretty open, both in the men’s and women’s fields.

We’ve seen athletes from a huge number of nations scoring points this campaign. Are you pleased with how competitive the racing has been, and by the diversity of participants?

Beier: Yes, absolutely. SBX has always been one of the most internationally balanced disciplines within Snowboarding. We’ve always had a lot of nations competing and that's been underlined this season again. We're seeing athletes from so many nations and not only participating, but – like in Snowboard Alpine - consistently earning World Cup points. So it's really good to see how strong and widely developed the discipline has become.

This competitiveness is really essential and it proves that SBX has not only a deep field, but it’s also a truly very global discipline. You have over 20 nations competing sometimes and that's really healthy and good for the future of the sport.

China hosted SBX for the second consecutive year but this time with a new venue. What did you make of the Dongbeiya resort’s debut?

Beier: Dongbeiya definitely delivered an impressive debut event. Building a brand new SBX venue is never easy. Yet the resort showed strong commitment, modern infrastructure, and it was an excellent cooperation with our course builders and the technical staff. The feedback from the athletes, as mentioned before, was really positive - regarding snow quality and the overall setup - especially as it was the first time over there. And hopefully we can return there.

SBX at Milano Cortina 2026 will be held at Livigno Snow Park. How are things shaping up?

Beier: It's no secret that there were long delays to a lot of things for several reasons, so we had concerns for some months, even until the beginning of December. There were emergency plans already drawn up for it being late, the weather not being helpful, and so on. However, it has turned out positive because we were a bit lucky. The organizers were lucky too with the cold temperatures over Christmas and New Year with all the new installations - snow making and so on - working seamlessly. And so, at the end, we now have a fantastic Olympic venue for all our event group – the Halfpipe, Slopestyle, and not least the Cross courses.

We have good dimensions, a long course as is usual for the Olympics at close to 1200 meters. It’s a long track with all kinds of features and variations that our athletes usually wish for technically. And speed-wise, jumps, air time, a nice long start section, everything is there.

Hopefully this will also generate a legacy in terms of future stops for the World Cup and all kinds of levels of events for SBX because it's now really a great venue. We can hopefully benefit from this in the future as well as the Italian federation, of course. Having such a venue available for training and competitions is definitely of high value in the future.

Which athletes and storylines are you particularly looking forward to seeing during the rest of the season?

Beier: The reigning champions from last season – Lea Casta (FRA) and Eliot Grondin (CAN) - are still among the favorites. Definitely standing out is the strong French team this year which have been dominating the first World Cup races – men and women - as they did at the end of last season. They have several athletes that can make the top 10 and they’re always going for the podium positions. That's amazing to see and the French are definitely going to challenge for top results at the Olympics and, of course, the overall World Cup.

Switzerland has some strong athletes on the women’s side including Sina Siegenthaler and young Noemie Wiedmer, and Mia Clift (AUS) is one to watch having reached three finals in her last five World Cup races.

There are some good young American riders coming through too: Nathan Pare has two podium finishes in 17 starts while Hanna Percy shows great potential.

For the fourth straight year, the World Cup will end at Mt. St. Anne. What makes this venue a consistent choice?

Beier: Mt. St. Anne has become one of the cornerstones of the SBX tour for many reasons. Every year, the venue delivers a strong organization committee. We have experienced course-building crews and very reliable snow conditions. The start section especially is kind of iconic and outstanding. It’s always rated very positively by the athletes, as is the whole course, so it’s always had a very good level on both competition days.

It's well worth its annual place on the calendar as the season finale. The plan at the moment is for us to consistently go there in the coming years ideally, but not necessarily, for the season finals. Our athletes and teams would probably also mention the outstanding end-of-season World Cup party we always have there.

Beier is also the Snowboard Alpine Race Director. Read his thoughts on that discipline ahead of Milano Cortina 2026.

Click here to read Nordic Combined Race Director Lasse Ottesen's thoughts ahead of the 2025/26 season.

Alpine Ski Race Directors Peter Gerdol and Markus Waldner look ahead to the Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games.

Ski Cross Race Director Klaus Waldner looks to Winter Olympics.

Park & Pipe Contest Director Roby Moresi on the Games and beyond.