Megan Oldham takes first World Cup win in two years and Matej Svancer gets ‘redemption’ in Aspen

The Women

Run One

The women kicked off proceedings as always under blue skies in Aspen. There was however some wind around causing the girls to struggle to find the right speed. Anni Karava was the first victim of this when she knuckled on a switch left cork 1080 lead blunt – she really is the epitomy of style though – and scored a 72.00. 

A relative newcomer to the Swiss World Cup team, Anouk Andraska, stomped a right double cork 1260 safety for an 87.00 – a very positive start and a great platform to build on. Straight off the back of her X Games victory, Flora Tabanelli went a little small on a switch double cork 1080 safety and had a foot up on landing, capping her score at 79.75. 

Megan Oldham went much larger than Anouk and ripped her high mute on a double cork 1260 to take a short lived lead. Tess then stomped a perfect switch 1440 safety, only wobbling slightly off axis, scoring her a whopping 95.75, leaving a high bench mark for the rest of the field.

Run Two

The wind must have been playing a factor as run two saw lots of mistakes and crashes. Muriel Mohr reverted on double cork 1260, which is new for her in competition, while Anni crashed and Anouk was too loose to score well.

Flora then took the lead with a flawless left double cork 1260 mute, rightly scoring just under Megan’s from run one. Flora is rocking a new Red Bull sticker on her skis indicating that something is in the pipeline for the future. The Italian team are under very strict contract rules in the lead up to the Milano-Cortina Olympic games surrounding sponsorship, but it would be great news for Flora if she can negotiate the support of Red Bull.

Monster rider, Megan put herself out in front with a clean switch left double cork 1080 japan, posting two scores in the 90s, throwing the gauntlet down to the rest of the women. Tess would have comfortably jumped in front of her, capping the blunt on a left double cork 1260, but on landing her feet exploded out from underneath her as if she landed on a mine. She would need the final run to try and put it down with the pressure on.

Run Three

Dropping in reverse order, sitting at the bottom of the pack, Anni leap frogged her way into provisional third place with a steezy double cork 1080 mute – she would then have to wait for most of the field to drop to try and hold onto that place. Lots of mistakes followed however, as Muriel crashed on her double 1260 and Eleonor Andrews butt-checked. 

Tess, as she admirably always does, went for broke but missed the blunt, crashing out and missing the podium. With such a high score on her first jump, she probably could have played it safe and podiumed, but that is not in the French riders nature and her drive to progress the sport needs to be celebrated. 

What it meant though, was that Anni only had to dodge one last Anouk-shaped bullet to secure another World Cup podium. Anouk got too friendly with knuckle, leaving Flora and Megan to battle for the top spot and giving Anni another third place.

Flora sent her switch double cork 1080 safety all the way to flats, improving her first run score but not enough to overtake Megan. Megan stomped her switch 1080 again to prove it was not a fluke on her victory lap and celebrated her first World Cup win in over two years with all the women in the firsh area. 

Flora’s second place was enough to secure her the Big Air Crystal Globe, having been on the podium in every single event this year – amazing consistency from the Italian teenager.

Final Podium: Megan Oldham in first place, Flora Tabanelli in second place and Anni Karava in third.

The Men

Run One

If this was a moustache contest, it would have been over within the opening jumps as Austrian Julius Forer opened things up. He stomped with a switch double cork 1620 double hand japan which, unlike the score I would give his whiskers, was only good enough for the high 80s. The metronomically consistent Andri Ragettli all but matched Julius’ score with a switch double bio buick – there’s never much to say with Andri’s tricks, he does them pretty perfectly every time, so if you’ve seen them once, you’ve seen them all – not a bad thing, if you are into it.

Tim Sivignon briefly grabbed meader on a switch double misty mute for an 82, which was followed by the first score in the 90s by Canadian Noah Porter Maclennan. He stomped a trick that is gaining popularity, maybe because it keeps getting hooked up, a double cork 1980 stalefish. Although undoubtedly very difficult, it’s not the prettiest trick to watch and he did not cap the short stale – you could argue he was over-scored.

Matej Svancer – who many of the safety grab-loving keyboard warriors thought was robbed of X Games big air gold – stomped an enormous switch left triple cork 1800 safety. The judges had a close look at it and decided it was a true tail butter, as they could see the ski flexing off the take-off. There has been some conversation within the judges circles about when and how to reward butters. Although the flexing of the ski on the lip is the most obvious indication that it is done correctly, the amplitude is also being taken into consideration. Even if the ends of the skis are not being flexed into the lip, drifting and then generating amplitude can be considered equally as difficult – even more for the judges to look out for. In this case, they hooked Matej up with a huge 95.25.

Luca Harrington is making a good case for himself to be crowned the next King of Afterbang by wheelying out of right triple cork 1800 safety and scoring a 91 to round out  the first runs.

Run Two

Whether it was the wind, or the absence of X Games mode, there were lots of mistakes in run two. However, like he has done all season, Andri backed up his first trick with his left double cork 1980 cuban for a 91.25. Although good, once again his scores would probably not be enough for the podium due to the heavy tricks the rest of the field are packing.

Just like Lion King’s Simba, Konnor Ralph completely ignored Mufasa’s advice about avoiding the shadowy flats, sending a switch left triple cork 1800 all the way to the Gucci plateau, somehow stomping and scoring a 93 for his bravery. 

Despite his small stature, Matej then put the win out of reach from the rest of field. He stomped a crazy nose butter nollie triple cork 1980 safety for his second score above 95, giving him an extremely rare combined score of over 190. 

Luca then put himself into second place with his switch triple 1620 esco. Once again his landing was straight out of the “Tom Wallisch Textbook of Perfect Landings” in the chapter named, “The Definition of Bolts”. Unlike the 1980 stales, we are not getting sick of seeing this trick and luckily neither are the judges apparently, scoring him a 94.

Run Three

Sitting on a 94 score, Konnor went large on left triple cork 1800 mute to boost himself up into third place – a nervous place to be with most of the field waiting to drop. First he survived Tim Sivignon, who despite one-upping Konnor by taking the same trick to 1980, did not have a high enough first score to change the overall ranking. Next Konnor survived Dylan Deschamps, Noah and Julius who all could not improve their scores.

Andri was the last man to drop who could shake up the podium but having put down his two tricks perfectly already, would need to pull something new out to trouble the top spots. Needing a 92.50, he upgraded to a switch bio 1800 buick but it was a little bit scrappy at the end of the rotation and he might have dragged a knuckle on landing. It was only good enough for an agonisingly close 91.75 and another fourth place. Konnor – just like Anni Karava before him – had survived in the third place bunker for almost all of the final run shootout and would make his first World Cup podium.

With Matej’s insanely high combined score, it was all but said and done with Luca needing an unlikely 96.25 to overtake him. Luca went for it though, adding a 180 to his first trick and stomping an enormous right triple cork 1980 safety. Either Luca is built like a Kinder Egg and weighs about 20kgs or he has some sort of cheat code for gravity because he always seems to land lighter than a feather. “Only” a 93.50 was not good enough and gave the audience what they wanted, a Matej victory lap. Rarely disappointing, Matej greased the slowest switch front flip seen since, well last week, taking his second World Cup Big Air win of the season in style. The win puts him at the top of the Crystal Globe standings, just above Luca, going into the final round showdown in Tignes, France in March.

After taking the win, Matej exclaimed, “redemption” but later explained that, “The ‘redemption’ was for the switch front flip. It didn’t have a deeper meaning, it was just the switch front from the X Games, I didn’t lace it. But on the switch front flip right now, I didn’t have to open up”. After everything that has been said on social media, this might have just been a good PR cover-up. Either way, this week in Aspen the results went his way but has done nothing but fuel the debate around the switch tail butters.