KATIE ORMEROD WINS CRYSTAL GLOBE
10th March 2020
Last modified on May 21st, 2021
The 22-year-old Briton has been confirmed as the overall World Cup Snowboard Slopestyle Champion. She’s the first British woman to win a Crystal Globe and the first snowboarder.
The news came after the International Ski Federation said attempts to reschedule the final competition of the season had failed.
Ormerod had been leading the standings with one event to go.
It was due to take place in Spindelruv Mlyn in the Czech Republic but was called off due to the COVID-19 virus.
A Crystal Globe is awarded to ski and snowboard athletes with the most points in their discipline when the World Cup competition year concludes.
Ormerod is the first British woman and the first British snowboarder to collect the coveted trophy.
James Woods, is the only other British snowsports athlete to have a Crystal Globe.
He won the ski slopestyle title in 2013.
Ormerod has had her best season to date.
She won a silver medal in the Big Air World Cup in Cardrona, New Zealand, in August 2019 before picking up four Slopestyle podiums this winter.
It’s her first season back from serious injury after she suffered a broken heel on the eve of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
It ended her chances of competing at her first Olympics and put her out of the sport for 18 months.
“I’m so excited to be the overall World Cup Slopestyle Champion,” Ormerod said.
“I have finished this season with 5 World Cup podiums, 3 yellow bibs and my first ever Overall World Cup Slopestyle title and Crystal Globe.
“My comeback season has turned out to be the best season of my career so far and it’s been so much fun.”
“Thank you to everyone who has supported me, including my fans, my coach Hamish McKnight, GB Snowsport and my sponsors.”
Ormerod has had four straight top 3 finishes in World Cup events.
The results include a 3rd place at the Laax Open, a 2nd place in Seiseralm, Italy, and 3rd place in both Calgary and Mammoth in the USA.
She amassed 2600 slopestyle FIS points and has been World Tour leader since the end of January following her second-place finish in Seiseralm.
Going into what was expected to be the season-ending contest, the SnowJam in Spindelruv Mlyn, she had a lead of 400 points over second place Laurie Blouin of Canada and a huge lead of 1350 over another Canadian, Brooke Voigt was was in 3rd place.
Ormerod also finished second in the overall Park & Pipe standings, just 240 points behind the winner Cai Xuetong of China, and 4th in the Big Air standings.
“Katie has made a phenomenal return to competitive snowboarding this season and has performed amazingly well,” the CEO of GB Snowsport Vicky Gosling said.
“We are so proud of Katie’s resilience and determination to succeed and we are so excited for the future.
“This is GB Snowsport’s second ever Crystal Globe – first in snowboarding – and it just goes to show how far the organisation has come in terms of competitive podiums in the last 18 months.”
A date for the formal presentation of the Crystal Globe will be announced soon by the International Ski Federation.
News of Ormerod’s Crystal Globe comes days after moguls skier Thomas Gerken-Schofield won Britain’s first World Cup medal in the event, picking up a silver in Russia at the weekend.
