Laax Open Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup: Stats Preview

 Laax Open Halfpipe World Cup – Men

• This will be the 11th time Laax (SUI) will host a Halfpipe World Cup event.

• The 10 previous editions of the men’s Halfpipe World Cup events in Laax (SUI) had seven different winners, with Scotty James (AUS) the only rider to claim multiple wins with four.

• Yuto Totsuka (JPN) triumphed in Aspen (USA) last week and recorded his first Halfpipe World Cup event win of the 2025/26 season. He can claim back-to-back Halfpipe World Cup victories for the first time since 2021 when he triumphed in Laax (SUI) in January 2021 and in Aspen (USA) in March 2021.

• Only Ryo Aono (JPN, 12) and Scotty James (AUS, 10) have won more Halfpipe World Cup events than Yuto Totuska (JPN, 9).

• Scotty James (AUS) has won the Laax Open four times, including the 2025 edition. It marks the most Halfpipe World Cup victories by a snowboarder at a single venue. This season’s Laax Open will be James’ second World Cup start of the 2025/25 after he finished 10th at the season opener in Secret Garden (CHN).

• Alessandro Barbieri (USA) is the only snowboarder representing the United States of America to reach a Halfpipe World Cup podium in the last three years, recording third-place finishes in Aspen last week and in Calgary (CAN) in February 2025. He can become the first USA rider to win a Halfpipe World Cup event since Shaun White’s (USA) last World Cup career victory in Snowmass (USA) in January 2018.

• The last European man to triumph at a Halfpipe World Cup was Jan Scherrer (SUI) who won in Secret Garden (CHN) in December 2018. Since then, the subsequent 31 World Cup events have been won by either a Japanese athlete (21 times) or an Australian athlete (10 times).

• The first four Halfpipe World Cup events of the 2025/26 season were won by four different riders - Secret Garden (CHN) by Ayumu Hirano (JPN), Copper Mountain (USA) by Ryusei Yamada (JPN), Calgary by Valentino Guseli (AUT) and Aspen (USA) by Totsuka. The last time a Halfpipe World Cup season had more than four different winners was in 2012/13, when the five events had five different winners.

 Laax Halfpipe World Cup – Women

• Halfpipe standings leader Gaon Choi (KOR) won the first two events of the 2025/26 season but did not compete in Calgary (CAN) and Aspen (USA).

• Last year’s Laax Open winner Chloe Kim (USA) will not compete in this season’s event due to a shoulder injury suffered in training last week.

• 2024/25 Halfpipe World Cup third overall finisher and Engadin 2025 World Championships silver medallist Sara Shimizu (JPN) is set to drop in on her first World Cup competition of the season this week in Laax. Shimizu finished seventh at the 2025 Laax Open.

• 2025 Laax Open runner-up Maddie Mastro (USA) returns to competition this week in Laax after sitting out last’s weekend’s event in Aspen (USA). Mastro became the first women in snowboard halfpipe competition history to land two double corks in one run at last season’s Laax Open.

• Gaon Choi (KOR) finished on the podium in five of her six career Halfpipe World Cup event starts, including three wins.

• All six Halfpipe World Cup results recorded by Gaon Choi (KOR) are as follows: 1st-6th-3rd-2nd-1st-1st. Her two worst results both came in Laax (SUI): 6th in 2024 and 3rd in 2025.

• Mitsuki Ono (JPN) recorded her seventh career Halfpipe World Cup victory in Aspen (USA) last week. Her six prior wins occurred in two sets of three consecutive victories: Laax (SUI), Mammoth Mountain (USA) and Calgary (CAN) in 2023, and again in 2024.

• With two previous wins in Laax in 2023 and 2024, Mitsuki Ono (JPN) can record more than two wins at the same venue for the first time in her career.

• Cai Xuetong (CHN) is one victory away from equaling Tricia Byrnes (USA) on the all-time record of Halfpipe World Cup wins on 15.

• Elizabeth Hosking (CAN) has recorded four World Cup podiums in her career, all on North American snow. Her best result in Laax was fifth place in 2023.

• Rise Kudo (JPN) has recorded a top-eight rank in each of her six career Halfpipe World Cup starts, reaching the podium once: 8th-5th-6th-2nd-7th-4th.

• The last European snowboarder to claim a Halfpipe World Cup victory was Queralt Castellet (ESP) in Copper (USA) in December 2022.