First World Cup Competition of Winter Underway

20th October 2023

It’s the Big Air Chur FIS Freeski and Snowboard World Cup in Switzerland. On Friday freeski takes the spotlight, followed by snowboard on Saturday. British eyes will be on Mia Brookes in the women’s snowboard. NEW

Up to 30,000 fans are set to watch the action in person and enjoy the music festival atmosphere.

Rain has affected the timetable with qualifications moved to Thursday.

Here’s news of the skiers:

The rain is supposed to ease off on Friday afternoon, giving a window for finals that we hope will ensure the top-level competition continues on track.

If that forecast holds, we’ll see freeski finals hit the big jump at 20:00 Friday evening.

Saturday’s weather is looking slightly more stable, and snowboard competition remains on schedule for qualifications beginning at 9:10 for the women and 12:00 for the men.

Then a 20:00 start for the top eight women and top 10 men in finals.

Freeski competition will be headlined by the likes of Mathilde Gremaud (SUI), Tess Ledeux (FRA) and Megan Oldham (CAN) on the women’s side.

Birk Ruud (NOR), Andri Ragettli (SUI) and Matej Svancer (AUT) are a few of the big names set to drop in for the men.

For the snowboarders, look to a strong Japanese team featuring Reira Iwabuchi, Kokomo Murase and Miyabi Onitsuka, as well as Laurie Blouin (CAN), Mia Brookes (GBR) and, hopefully, Anna Gasser (AUT) to make some noise for the women.

GB eyes will be on Mia Brookes who is a current World Champion:

Mia Brookes is World Champion

At 16-years old Mia Brookes is the youngest World Champion in the history of snowboarding.

Image © FIS Freestyle

Valentino Guseli (AUS), Sean Fitzsimons (USA), Sven Thorgren (SWE) and Taiga Hasegawa (JPN) are a few of the names to watch out for on the men’s side of things.

One other thing of note at the Big Air Chur is the brand-new jump set-up, which features 35m of the world-renowned JF Dry Ski technology on the in-ramp.

It then transitions to snow a few meters before the compression, with the jump and landing constructed of snow as per usual.

Feedback on the in-run through Wednesday’s training has been overwhelmingly positive.

Some athletes stating they can’t even notice the difference, and others suggesting the JF Dry Ski drop in is even better than snow.

“All we know is that it’s working, and it’s working well,” say the organisers.

Do check back later for the results…