Japan dominate Junior World Championships in Calgary with four titles

The next generation of Japanese park and pipe riders are set to take snowboarding to new heights after winning four of the eight FIS Park and Pipe Junior World Championships titles on offer in Calgary last week.

Fourteen-year-old Hiromu Watanabe was the first snowboarder representing Japan to secure a junior world title with victory in men’s Slopestyle on 28 February at Calgary's WinSport Canada Olympic Park.

Team-mate Suzuka Ishimoto came close in the women’s field but settled for second place behind U.S. rider Lily Dhawornvej as the 16-year-old built on her Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games debut to become Junior World Champion.

Fifteen-year-old Hakuto Kitayama gave Japan its second men’s title at Calgary as the only rider to score above 90.00 in the Big Air final on 4 March. Team-mate Imari Kato was runner-up in the women’s final behind Belgium’s Sky Remans, who shrugged off her fourth-place Slopestyle finish to claim victory.

In Halfpipe, Japanese athletes claimed four of the six podium spots on offer as Konosuke Murakami and Haku Shimasaki posted a one-two finish in the men’s final on 5 March.

Murakami and Shimasaki’s high scores of 96.50 and 94.50 respectively put them at least 10 points clear of Swiss rider Mischa Zuercher’s third-placed score of 84.25.

In the women’s pipe, runner-up Lura Wick (SUI) was the only non-Japanese athlete on the podium as Sorana Ohashi claimed top spot. Fourteen-year-old team-mate Aiko Okada was third.

The Rail events on 7 March were the only disciplines where Japanese athletes did not finish in the top three as Jessica Perlmutter (USA) topped the women’s field to claim her third podium in Calgary after she was runner-up in Big Air and Slopestyle.

Stian Langbakk (CAN) gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about with his victory, which was also the host nation’s only top-three snowboard result at the 2026 FIS Park and Pipe Junior World Championships.

With his third place in Rail, Dmytro Luchkin (UKR) joined Perlmutter as the only other snowboarder in Calgary to claim three podium finishes after he was runner-up in Big Air and third in Slopestyle earlier in the week.

The Rail event in Calgary marked the first time it was contested at the Junior World Championships.

QUICK LINKS

Full results from the 2026 FIS Park and Pipe Junior World Championships