Aspen Hosts the Freeski and Snowboard World Championships

This past week, Aspen hosted the International Ski & Snowboard Federation Freeski and Snowboard World Championships. This is the first major event that really builds up the hype before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics next year. The American team is very deep and the Olympic team spots are highly coveted. Each event that takes place is more meaningful than ever before as athletes look to qualify for the upcoming Olympics.

A Successful Host City

Naturally, this ski season has been unusual all over the world and many professional events have been postponed or canceled because of COVID-19. This World Championship event came together quite quickly and ended up going very well, despite our own pandemic restrictions in Aspen. This World Championship was actually supposed to be held in China last month, but was postponed and moved to Aspen at the last minute. Everyone is extremely grateful to all the staff, volunteers and athletes who made this event happen at the famed Buttermilk Ski Area.

Buttermilk also hosted the Winter X Games in January and we will have the Land Rover U.S. Grand Prix World Cup slopestyle and halfpipe competition this weekend.

I know I enjoyed watching and following the results—from qualifying stages to the final rounds that took place over the weekend and early this week.

Local Competitors

I was definitely rooting for our local competitor, Alex Ferreira. He was competing in the freestyle skiing halfpipe event. He ended up finishing just off the podium in 4^th place, though I know he will rebound and compete hard in his next events leading up to the Olympics next year! It should come as no surprise that American snowboarding superstar, Chloe Kim, dominated the women’s halfpipe competition. Congrats to her as always!

Here is a list of the top three finishers in each event. For the entire results from qualification through finals, click here.

FREESKI EVENTS:

Men’s Freeski Halfpipe:

1. 1. Nico Portous (New Zealand)
   2. Simon D’Artois (Canada)
   3. Birk Irving (USA)

Women’s Freeski Halfpipe:

1. 1. Ailing Eileen Gu (China)
   2. Rachael Karker (Canada)
   3. Zoe Atkin (Great Britain)

Men’s Freeski Slopestyle:

1. 1. Andri Ragettli (Switzerland)
   2. Colby Stevenson (USA)
   3. Alexander Hall (USA)

Women’s Freeski Slopestyle:

1. 1. Ailing Eileen Gu (China)
   2. Mathilde Gremaud (Switzerland)
   3. Megan Oldham (Canada)

Men’s Freeski Big Air:

1. 1. Oliwer Magnusson (Sweden)
   2. Edouard Therriault (Canada)
   3. Kim Gubser (Switzerland)

Women’s Freeski Big Air:

1. 1. Anastasia Tatalina (Russia)
   2. Lana Prusakova (Russia)
   3. Ailing Eileen Gu (China)

SNOWBOARD EVENTS:

Men’s Snowboard Halfpipe:

1. 1. Yuto Totsuka (Japan)
   2. Scotty James (Australia)
   3. Jan Scherrer (Switzerland)

Women’s Snowboard Halfpipe:

1. 1. Chloe Kim (USA)
   2. Maddie Maestro (USA)
   3. Queralt Castellet (Spain)

Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle:

1. 1. Marcus Kleveland (Norway)
   2. Sebastian Toutant (Canada)
   3. Rene Rinnekangas (Finland)

Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle:

1. 1. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (New Zealand)
   2. Jamie Anderson (USA)
   3. Tess Coady (Australia)

Men’s Snowboard Big Air:

1. 1. Mark McMorris (Canada)
   2. Max Parrot (Canada)
   3. Marcus Kleveland (Norway)

Woman’s Snowboard Big Air:

1. 1. Laurie Blouin (Canada)
   2. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (New Zealand)
   3. Miyabi Onitsuka (Japan)

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Brittanie Rockhill

Aspen Real Estate

brittanierockhill.com

DRE # FA.100019229