Flora Tabanelli and Luca Harrington finish dominant breakout seasons on a high

The Women

The first run saw a “cork” of double 1080 safeties – if that is the collective noun for ski tricks – all scoring around the 80 mark, depending on the length of grab, axis and landing. Olivia Asselin’s double cork 1080 safety scored the highest of the “cork” with an 82.00. Anni Karava was the only rider to mix things up and landed her signature switch cork 900 lead tail, before Flora Tabanelli took the lead with a switch double cork 1080 safety. Megan Oldham’s high mute double 1080 was put just below Flora by the judges on an 85.75 – the highest of the forward double cork 1080s so far. It was Sarah Hoefflin’s switch double cork 1080 mute that would land her in first place after run one with the first score in the nineties. Grab something other than safety, get paid.

Lara Wolf made history in run two by landing the first ever switch left double misty 1260. Unfortunately her safety grab was questionable and she was grabbing both of her knees by the end of the rotation. Despite this she still scored a 72, which indicates how high this could have scored with more hand-to-ski contact.

Anni joined the double cork 1080 party a run late and showed everyone else how to do them, scoring the highest score for that trick of the night. Her axis is cool, she is grabbing mute for the whole rotation and her landing is perfect and stylish – textbook. Flora then crashed on double 1260 attempt and Megan could not land clean enough and scored in the high seventies. Sarah rounded out the second run in first place adding a right double cork 1080 safety to the bag. She scored an 80.25 and would drop last for the final round.

Running in reverse rank order, unusually Flora was first to drop having only landed one trick so far. She made no mistake on her second attempt and put the landing gear down on a left double cork 1260 mute – scoring a 89.00 and jumping herself up into first place. She would have to wait in the finish area for the whole rest of the field to drop to see if they could take the title away from her.

Lara went for the same trick again, this time fumbling her boot but landing backseat. She improved slightly on the score board but not in the ranking. It was great to see her put this to her feet twice, pushing forward the level of the women’s sport – she will certainly land it clean next time.

Megan again couldn’t put it down clean, meaning she would have to settle for 5th place. Olivia managed to trick the judges in run two when she released the mute early on a switch 1080 and double shifted the rest of the rotation around. It is not mandatory to grab during a trick, it is just one of the best, or easiest ways, to demonstrate control to the judges. This was the conversation in the booth and despite what might seem like a short grab, the judges awarded it in the low eighties. For her third run however, she laced what she was clearly trying to do. Olivia released the mute early and then reached back with the other hand and capped stalefish – it oozed style. She might have dragged a couple of knuckles on her landing as she came down heavily but the judges still hooked her up with an 85.00 and she jumped up onto the podium.

Having just been bumped into fourth place, Anni, with nerves of steel, stomped a switch left cork 1080 lead blunt to immediately move herself back up into third place, by the barest of margins.

Flora was visually nervous – she had managed to dodge every bullet flying her way and needed to evade one last Sarah shaped one to become Big Air World Champion. Sarah dropped in and unveiled a trick we have not seen from her yet, a left double cork 1440 japan, just about putting it to her feet, backslapping a bit and skiing out of the landing looking both surprised and stoked. She is still pushing the sport forward, despite taking the second half of the season off with injury and being at least ten years older than the rest of the finalists. It was not clean enough to improve her score and she would settle for second place and almost certainly bag the worst hangover of the field.

Flora had done more than survived, finishing the contest season as Crystal Globe winner and now World Champion in her first full season competing in the adults division. Her domination has been absolute, making the podium in every big air event she has entered throughout the year, including gold at X Games. The sky is the limit for the young Italian.

Final women’s podium: Flora Tabanelli in first place, Sarah Hoefflin in second place and Anni Karava in third.

The Men

Straight out the gate it was clear that it was going to be a tightly fought contest and a judges nightmare with the lowest score for a landed run after the first round a meager 87. 

Alex Hall with the second run of the day posted a 91.25 with an opposite tokyo drift double cork 1260 japan – a pretty high anchor score but he deserved it – it is hard to describe, but it looks really hard so rightly gets hooked up. He would struggle to put down his second tricks clean enough to make it close to the podium and would end the night in 6th.

Two time slopestyle World Champion, Birk Ruud took home more hardware by finishing the night in third. He ended the first round in 7th place with an comparatively embarrassing score of 87.00 but made up for it on his final two jumps. Birk seemed close to being back to his best and landed a switch triple cork 1980 mute followed by a perfect left double bio 1800 mute – both tricks bumping him into second place at the time. 

It was Elias Syrja who would finish in second place though, taking his first ever podium. This big air season has been defined mostly by the debate of how “properly” riders are buttering off take-offs. There is no debate when it comes to Elias though – he often rotates more than 180 degrees while still in contact with the snow and – if you have ever had the pleasure of watching him ski live – you can hear the skis snap off of the take-off from the force he is putting through them. His first stomp was a switch left tail butter double bio 1440 safety, a trick we have mansplained the difficulty of before. In the final round, he was bumped off of the podium by Birk’s helicopter impression and was sitting in the familiar position of fourth. With the same kind of steely calm as his compatriot Anni, he went all the way to the bottom on a left nose butter double cork 1800 japan to score a 92 and to jump into a well deserved and long time coming second place.

As he has done before this season, Luca Harrington had the result wrapped up after just two jumps. His first run, he carved into a right triple cork 1980 safety which scored him a 92.00. It could have been scored higher but Luca had an unusual instability in the landing, nothing major but he must have forgotten to strap his boots together like he normally does. With his second hit, Luca would put himself virtually out of touch, scoring a whopping 96.75 for an insanely perfect switch right triple cork 1800 esco grab. He grabs for almost the whole rotation and lands so perfectly, seemingly every time.

After Mac was unable to improve on his third attempt – and the rest of the field could not get close to overtaking him – Luca had a victory lap. Not content with simply winning and becoming World Champion, the perfectionist Luca went for another right triple 1980, ripping the safety out to the side and landing at the bottom, absolutely bolts, like only he can do. It was an outrageous trick to do unnecessarily and the crowd, as well as Elias, erupted in the finish area.

Luca has been dominant in the most fiercely competitive era of big air skiing, ever. He has won two World Cups, podiumed in another two, scored X Games silver and now comfortably crowned himself World Champion with an awe inspiring level of skiing. In the current climate of big air skiing, Luca’s achievements cannot be overstated.

Final Men’s Podium: Luca Harrington in first place, Elias Syrjä in second place and Birk Ruud in third.