Australian teen snowboard prodigy Valentino Guseli has recorded his first slopestyle podium of the season at the perfect time, with a bronze medal performance on the final day of the season dramatically snatching the overall park and pipe Crystal Globe in Silvaplana, Switzerland.

The overall park and pipe Crytal Globe includes results from halfpipe, big air and slopestyle and heading into the final day of competition for the season, Guseli needed to finish well ahead of Japanese rider Ryoma Kimata who had a significant lead in the standings, to defend the historic title he won last year as a 17-year-old.

In qualifying, Kimata had his worst performance of the season finishing in 50th, with Gueli advancing to the final in first place, which meant he would need to finish in fourth place or better to move into first place and take the Crystal Globe.
In the best of two fun final, Guseli was consistent on both runs, opening with a score of 77.31, and then improved in the second run, receiving a score of 83.77 points from the judges to give him third place and enough points to secure back-to-back overall Crystal Globes.

Ahead of Guseli on the podium was Canadian Liam Brearley in second on 88.10 points and Taiga Hasegawa of Japan with the best score of 88.52 points.

Guseli now has nine career World Cup medals competing in the three park and pipe disciplines of halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air, and three Crystal Globes.

“I am super stoked with the way today went, in my second run I landed one of the best runs of my life” said the 18-year-old from Dalmeny on the NSW South Coast.

“Got on the podium and got the globe, which was my main goal, and from my side I don’t think today could have gone much better, I am super proud of my performance.”

“To win the overall, which means to be the most consistent out of all three freestyle disciplines, I am honoured to have won it for the second year in a row.”

“This season has been an interesting one, there has been lots of ups and downs, but I definitely feel like I have learned a lot this year, and I am super happy with where my snowboarding is right now.”

Also competing for Australia in Silvaplana was Joshua Robertson-Hahn in 36th and Meila Stalker 18th in the women's slopestyle event.

In the freeski slopestyle, Abi Harrigan finished in 11th matching her World Cup personal best, and in the men's competition Kai Martin was 34th and Cameron Waddell 51st.

Silvaplana and nearby St Moritz will host the 2025 Snowboard and Freestyle World Championships in March next year, as the major lead up event to the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games in February 2026. less than two years away.

Over the weekend in Tignes, France, a World Cup slopestyle (snowboard and freeski) and big air event (freeski) took place, with NSWIS rider Meila Stalker the best performed Australian finishing in ninth place. Stalker qualified for finals in tenth place and in the best of two-run final had her highest score in run one with 50.25, giving her a ninth place ranking.

2023 World Cup Overall Park & Pipe champion Valentino Guseli was drawn in heat number two in the qualification round and finished in ninth place, just missing out on the top-eight needed to advance to the final. In the final rankings Guseli was 24th once scored were used to rank riders from both heats. Guseli is currently ranked third in the overall park & pipe standings, after finishing the season ranked second in halfpipe, 12th in big air and with one event remaining is 27thin slopestyle.

In the freeski events, Kai Martin had a personal best World Cup performance, finishing 23rd in the slopestyle and in the big air finished in 43rd. Cam Waddell finished 55th in slopestyle and 45th in big air. 2022 Olympian Abi Harrigan was the sole competitor for Australia in the women’s freeski slopestyle and big air, placing 12th in both events.

Next weekend the skiers and boarders will compete in Silvaplana, Switzerland, for the final event of the season on March 23 for snowboard and March 24 for freeski.