Teenager Ally Hickman has finished tenth in an impressive World Cup debut at the Slopestyle World Cup event in Laax, Switzerland.
 
In the best of two run qualifying round, the 15-year-old NSWIS rider scored 44.66 on her first run, and then stepped it up in the second run to score 64.99, placing her tenth, narrowly missing out on advancing to the eight woman final.
 
Fellow NSWIS athletes Meila Stalker finished in 14th place with a best score of 58.78 in run two and Jesse Parkinson was 59th in the men’s event.
 
First place in the women’s event went to Mia Brookes of Great Britain and the men’s event went to Cameron Spalding of Canada.
 
Freeski Slopestyle
In the freeski slopestyle event in Laax, Abi Harrigan, Daisy Thomas and Kai Martin were all in action for Australia.
 
The highest placed finisher was NSWIS 2022 Olympian Abi Harrigan in 20th, Daisy Thomas was 25th and returning from injury in his first World Cup of the season was Kai Martin who finished 33rd.
 
Eileen Gu of China won the women’s event and Birk Ruud of Norway was victorious in the men’s.

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.

The FIS Snowboard & Freeski Park & Pipe World Cup tour commenced last month in Chur, Switzerland, with a big air event taking place.

China will host a big air World Cup in Beijing this weekend, and then a halfpipe World Cup event at the 2022 Olympic venue the following weekend in Secret Garden.

Teen sensation and reigning big air World Cup champion Valentino Guseli will no doubt feature strongly in China, after qualifying for finals in second place at the opening World Cup in Chur, finishing seventh in the final.

"It's very cool to be back, I had a great time here my first time in this country for the Olympics, and now here for another great time" said Guseli.

"Training has gone great so far, the jump is super nice and I'm ready to go ham. My goals for the rest of the season are nothing short of winning everything. Either way, I am definitely going to give it my all."

Tess Coady will be competing in her first big air event since claiming bronze at the 2023 World Championships.

"Super great to be back in China. Definitely a different vibe to last time we were here, It’s really nice to be back with the snowboard crew all just staying in the same hotel, vibing, shredding, so it’s good," said Coady.

"Training has been going well so far. We just had our first practice day and the jump is riding really well, so we will see how the next few days unfold, the team is looking solid."

"I’m looking forward to spending some time on this jump, and in the air and getting back into the contest season."
Also in the men’s event will be Snow Australia rider Joshua Robertson-Hahn, competing in the second World Cup of his career.

Freeski will also be in action in Beijing, with Kai Martin the sole Australian representative in big air.

Snowboard Halfpipe
The following weekend in China will see the first FIS Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup of the year take place in Secret Garden, with two-time Olympic Medallist and triple World Champion Scotty James the lone Australian in action. The Secret Garden resort was the location for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games where James took home the silver medal in an epic Olympic halfpipe final.

Halfpipe qualifying in Secret Garden is on December 6th with the final two days later on December 8th.

Valentino Guseli will not be able to compete in the halfpipe event in China, as another big air World Cup is scheduled at the same time in Edmonton, Canada, where Guseli claimed the first world Cup victory of his career 12 months ago.

The World Cup snowboard season kicked off in Chur, Switzerland, on the 21st of October, with a big air event to open the season.

Defending his Overall Park & Pipe World Cup and Big Air titles from last season, teen snowboard prodigy Valentino Guseli, made a strong start to the event, qualifying for the final in second place after scoring 87 points on his first jump.

In the 10-man final, where two of your three jumps counts towards your final score, Guseli’s best jump was his second, where the judges gave him 82.75 points, but he unfortunately had trouble with his landing on his first and third jumps, with his next counting score being a 26.50 from his final jump, giving him a final two jump score of 109.25, putting him in seventh place.

Also in action for Australia was Joshua Robertson-Hahn who finished in 24th in his World Cup debut.

Japanese riders made it a clean sweep of the men's podium, with Ogiwara Hiroto claiming victory with a two jump score of 171.50, with Kira Kimura in second on 168 and Takeru Otsuka in third.

In the freeski big air, Kai Martin also made his Word Cup debut, placing 40th overall. The next snowboard big air World Cup will be in Beijing, China, on December 2nd, with Olympic bronze medallist Tess Coady to make her season debut, with Guseli and Robertson-Hahn also competing.

The first freeski slopestyle event of the season for Martin will take place on November 24-25 in Stubai, Austria, before the skiers also head to China to join the snowboarders in Beijing.