All eyes on Aspen for Slopestyle World Cup season debut and Olympic teaser
Jan 06, 2026·Snowboard Park & Pipe
Excitement is building for the first Slopestyle World Cup of the 2025/26 season in Aspen (USA) this week as a stacked field of snowboarders look to start the countdown to the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games with a strong World Cup start in Colorado.
Slopestyle is the last of the FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe World Cup disciplines to start its 2025/26 season, with competition beginning at Aspen’s Snowmass resort on Thursday 8 January – less than 30 days until the start of the Milano Cortina 2026 Games in February.
The men’s field of 60 includes three-time Olympic Slopestyle bronze medalist Mark McMorris (CAN), Beijing 2022 Olympic Big Air champion and Slopestyle silver medalist Su Yiming (CHN), and PyeongChang 2018 Slopestyle gold medalist Red Gerard (USA).
McMorris is aiming to qualify for his fourth Games at Milano Cortina and is among four Canadian men vying for one of three available Olympic spots in the combined Slopestyle and Big Air quota per gender for each nation. Slopestyle World Champion Liam Brearley (CAN) secured early qualification for Milano Cortina but will be missing the 2025/26 season as he recovers from a knee injury. Last season’s Crystal Globe winner Cameron Spalding also qualified early for Milano Cortina.
McMorris comes to Aspen after beginning the 2025/26 season with 35th and 27th place in Big Air at Secret Garden and Beijing (CHN) respectively. The 32-year-old will be hoping those performances served to help him warm up for Aspen. The same goes for Spalding, who began his season with 26th place in Big Air at the Steamboat World Cup. Eli Bouchard is the only Canadian rider in Aspen to achieve a top-five result thus far this season after he was fourth at Big Air Beijing. Francis Jobin claimed his maiden World Cup victory in Aspen last season but his three Big Air starts so far this season were in 48th, 29th and 18th place in Secret Garden, Beijing and Steamboat (USA) respectively.
It was a different story for the in-form Su Yiming as he claimed back-to-back Big Air victories on home snow in Secret Garden and Beijing to win the discipline Crystal Globe. The 21-year-old returns to competition in Aspen after skipping the Big Air season finale in Steamboat and is one of five Chinese snowboarders in the men’s field alongside Secret Garden runner-up Ge Chunyu. Su was runner-up in Aspen last year in a performance that marked the beginning of a long-awaited return to form from injury that culminated with Slopestyle silver at the Engadin 2025 FIS Snowboard World Championships.
Meanwhile, U.S. snowboarder Red Gerard begins his 2025/26 season on home snow in Aspen as the PyeongChang 2018 gold medalist prepares for his third Games. The 25-year-old ended last season with two runner-up finishes from three Slopestyle finals as well as a fifth place at the 2025 World Championships.
Gerard is among 17 U.S. snowboarders competing in Aspen and is joined by 2025 World Championships double bronze medalist Oliver Martin. The 17-year-old comes to Aspen after starting his 2025/26 season with third place in Big Air at Steamboat, with the teenager going from strength to strength since wrapping up his first World Cup season in 2024/25 with a maiden victory at the Slopestyle season finale in Calgary (CAN), followed by two bronze World Championships medals in Big Air and Slopestyle.
Former Big Air World Champion Taiga Hasegawa (JPN) is among a contingent of six Japanese snowboarders in the men’s field. The 20-year-old narrowly missed the Calgary Slopestyle World Cup podium in 2025 with fourth place and will be hungry for success in Aspen after he was eighth in December at the Big Air season opener in Secret Garden. Hasegawa counts three podiums among his 14 Slopestyle World Cup starts, including victory at Silvaplana (SUI) in 2023.
Compatriot Mari Fukada leads the women’s field of 32 in Aspen alongside two-time Big Air Crystal Globe winner Reira Iwabuchi, Kokomo Murase, Momo Suzuki and Miyabi Onitsuka. Twenty-seven-year-old Onitsuka comes to Aspen after a blistering start to the 2025/26 season with third and first place at Secret Garden and Steamboat respectively. Onitsuka topped the field in Steamboat after she helped deliver a Japanese podium sweep in Secret Garden behind runner-up Iwabuchi and winner Fukada.
Australia’s Tess Coady was fourth behind Onitsuka in Secret Garden and comes to Aspen with fresh legs after the Beijing 2022 Slopestyle bronze medalist skipped the Big Air season finale in Steamboat. Fellow Australian Ally Hickman finished third in Steamboat to claim her first World Cup podium, while Meila Stalker finished seventh.
Canada’s Laurie Blouin begins her 2025/26 season in Aspen as the 29-year-old gears up for her third Olympic Winter Games. Blouin missed the podium with fourth place at Beijing 2022 after claiming silver at PyeongChang 2018. Meanwhile, teammate Juliette Pelchat rolls into Aspen after finishing fourth in Steamboat, her best career performance from 16 World Cup starts across Big Air and Slopestyle.
Last season’s Slopestyle Crystal Globe winner Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL) is not competing in Aspen, and neither is last season’s overall Park & Pipe Globe winner Mia Brookes (GBR) after the 18-year-old topped the Big Air podium in Beijing in December.
Slopestyle competition in Aspen begins with qualifications from 9:00 Mountain Standard Time (MST) on Thursday, followed by the finals on Saturday 10 January at 9:30 MST. The top eight women and top 10 men from qualifications will progress to the finals.
)
)
