Matej Svancer and Flora Tabanelli both “Step Up” in Stoneham

The Women

Run One

The wind was gusting up the course making judging the speed for the jumps a challenge. The usually super baggy Rell Harwood had even duct taped her ski pants tight around her legs to reduce drag and used a double-coach slingshot to boost out of the start gate. Ironically, she went too big on the second jump and crashed on her double cork 1260.

There then followed plenty of small errors from the women as they searched for their range on the rails. Ruby Star Andrews made two big errors in her run and then Kokone Kondo and Kirtsy Muir both slipped off a rail early.

Run Two

Rell sensibly opted to dumb down her run, sticking with a 900 on the second jump. She then mirrored right and left foot front 450 on the next two rails but had to shuffle round on a disaster 270 continuing 270 – she would go into third place with a 74.11.

Kokone managed to clean up her run but was a victim of the wind and landed too close to both knuckles for the judges’ liking. 

Kirsty, who has made two slopestyle finals on the bounce since returning from injury, started with a beautiful left cork 900 blunt, emphasising her class. But as her run was building she was back seat as she rode out of a switch right lip front 450 off, which cost her a large improvement on her first score.

Sitting in second place and guaranteed a medal, Ruyi could not improve her score, also getting too friendly with the knuckles. 

Speed was clearly becoming more of an issue as Flora also struggled on the jumps and had to pull the rip cord on the double cork 1080 set and somehow managed to put it to her feet as a 900. She would not improve her score but she did improve her rail run by adding a switch left 270 back 270, where before she had just shiftied out. She is no longer just a threat on the jumps, her rail game is as good as anyone’s now.

Anyone’s except perhaps Olivia’s, who would have the final say as she dropped in last. Her rail line was the most difficult of the field – right foot front swap continuing blind 450, switch left 270 pretzel front 450 out and ending with a left 270 continuing front 270. Heartbreakingly for her home fans, she could not get the speed right for either jump – going too big on the first and slipping her grab and knuckling the second. Her score was only going to be enough for fifth place, meaning that the Italian teenager had won her first slopestyle World Cup on one of the most rail-heavy courses of the season.

“It feels really amazing. I’m stoked to do that run. I’m really happy also because slopestyle is not my first discipline.” – Flora Tabanelli

Having already secured the Crystal Globe in big air, this win puts Flora in contention for the overall women’s park and pipe Crystal Globe. She is only 100 points away from the leader, Eileen Gu, who is unlikely to compete in Tignes due to injury.

Final women’s podium: Flora Tabanelli in first place, Ruyi Yang in second place and Rell Harwood in third.

The Men

Run One

The men’s contest was heavy with lots of options for gnarly transfers and huge disasters onto the rails. Ben Barclay immediately demonstrated how dangerous it is to transfer from one rail to another when he got bucked off the first rail and narrowly missed the second rail with his kidneys. The mistakes kept flowing as Andri Ragettli missed the pop on a back rodeo 630 out, Mac Forehand shuffled a pretzel 630 out, and both Max Moffat and Evan McEachran crashed on the first jump.

Kim Gubser was the first to enter the 80s, with a run that started with mirrored left and right switch double 900 bring back 720s. He was quickly overtaken by Konnor Ralph who put down a mega run, transferring between rails twice, finishing with a hands-in-the-pockets right foot back 360 transfer swap pretzel 270 – moving him into the mid eighties. 

Luca Harrington and Alex Hall would round out the first run with unthreatening scores in the mid seventies. Luca landed short on his second jump and then only tapped the rainbow rail on the way through it, rather than sliding its entirety. Alex similarly had a small mistake, only doing a switch lip back swap to switch on the middle rail. It was clear he wanted more and the judges were not going to let him get away with it.

Run Two

Ben Barclay got the second runs off with a bang, starting with switch and forward 1620s followed by a switch left front bio 810 safety off the first rail. A front 360 swap continuing 270 followed by a switch right front swap transfer pretzel 270 ensured the judges would have to start maxing out their rangers, and he scored an 87.00 – a massive score in section by section judging – first place.

He was never going to crash twice and Andri put one to his feet, but was missing some of the technicality through the rails compared to the top guys – he went into third for the time being. Mac then jumped himself into second place with an 85.47 – the switch left lip right back 360 swap to forward over the transfer was equally as terrifying as it was impressive and the judges loved it. 

Evan felt pretty hard done by when he only scored an 83.43 on a run that was dripping with style, technicality and control. Switch 1800 to switch 1440 on the jumps, to switch left 270 back swap front 450 on the first rail – after that, every rail was locked and greased to the end, his disappointment was understandable – maybe he made it look too easy?

In his first run Matej Svancer had come agonisingly close to landing the slopestyle run of a lifetime. He crashed out wheelying away from the last rail on a run that would have surely put him in first place. On his second run though, he made no such mistakes. On the jumps, he juxtaposed a switch triple cork 1260 high safety with his 180 degrees of rotation, signature baron flip. Through the rails he showed outrageous control shiftying out of both a switch left 270 continuing 810 and a tokyo drift right 270 pretzel 450. He managed to ride away from his disaster 450 on the bottom rail and got hooked up an enormous 89.43 – an almost insurmountable total in the section by section system – anyone else would need perfection to top it.

Despite a tongue-twisting, mind-melting right foot back 360 transfer swap continuing back swap front 270 on the last rail, Konnor’s run was not perfect. He sketched slightly on his switch cork 720 hand drag over the rainbow, still jumping himself into third with an 86.25.

Luca cleaned up his run starting with switch 1800 to switch 1620 on the jumps and finishing with an insane switch left cork 450 disaster onto the bottom banister – a highlight of the whole contest. The judges took their time, slotting the kiwi into second place with only 0.54 more points than team mate Ben Barclay. The kiwis were sitting in second and third.

A-Hall was the last top drop and could have easily shaken up the podium but once again he struggled on the second rail feature. Coming off the side early and having to shuffle round a pretzel 270, he was not going to trouble the top of the field.

This left Matej Svancer with his first World Cup slopestyle win – which is almost unbelievable considering how talented he is – it will undoubtedly not be his last.

In what has turned out to be an incredibly successful week for the New Zealand freeski team, Matej was joined on the podium by two kiwis, Luca Harrington and Ben Barclay. Ben’s last World Cup podium came back in 2022 in Font Romeu, France.

The next and final World Cup slopestyle of the season will take place in the middle of March at the Mountain Shaker event in Tignes, France.