Snowboarding FIS World Cup 2020 - 2021

[NearPup 477]

2 hours ago, Monzanator said:

Americans have the X Games so I believe FIS World Cup is second rate for them? Not to mention the money, Ester Ledecka earned more money after one Lake Louise weekend than in the entire snowboard season. This discipline is really kinda going nowhere. It looked like it might be a blast 20 years ago but Europe rallies around the classic alpine skiing & cross country events. Snowboard has fizzled out like the Segway

Alpine snowboarding is a European thing at this point, it has no real support in North America. Vic Wild became Russian because the US didn't invest any money in alpine snowboarding. Snowboardcross is truly an FIS thing now, but for everything freestyle related the FIS is a second rate organizer. Their biggest freestyle world cups, like their events in Laxx, are FIS-sanctioned but aren't really FIS events. The Aspen X-Games are the de facto world championships for the discipline.

 

The only real purpose of freestyle snowboarding world cups is Olympic qualification.

 

You really can't judge the health of freestyle snowboarding by how FIS events are going, the snowboarding community tolerate the FIS because of the Olympics but they don't view them as important or influential.

 

Most snowboarders agree on your assessment of alpine snowboarding though - something that was cool 20 years ago but that basically nobody actually does anymore. It's entirely kept alive by the FIS.

[Olympian1010 3,266]

7 minutes ago, NearPup said:

Alpine snowboarding is a European thing at this point, it has no real support in North America. Vic Wild became Russian because the US didn't invest any money in alpine snowboarding. Snowboardcross is truly an FIS thing now, but for everything freestyle related the FIS is a second rate organizer. Their biggest freestyle world cups, like their events in Laxx, are FIS-sanctioned but aren't really FIS events. The Aspen X-Games are the de facto world championships for the discipline.

 

The only real purpose of freestyle snowboarding world cups is Olympic qualification.

 

You really can't judge the health of freestyle snowboarding by how FIS events are going, the snowboarding community tolerate the FIS because of the Olympics but they don't view them as important or influential.

Yeah, Alpine Snowboarding is unfortunately non-existent for the most part in the US. Though, there is a small, dedicated US team on the men’s side. I think Alpine Snowboarding is great for the sport though, since it adds diversity to the program. The biggest problem for the growth of the discipline is the specialized equipment required compared to the freestyle events (which generally just use generic step ups for the most part).

 

World Cup and World Championships are definitely the pinnacle of the sport for Snowboard Cross now, since the X Games dropped the discipline a few years back. (Which is a complete shame since (along with Ski Cross/Para Ski Cross) it was my favorite event growing up.)

 

The biggest events for Slopestyle remain invitationals generally independent of the FIS. For example: Laxx Open, X Games, Dew Tour, US Open. I still see many of the best competitors attending World Cup events though.

 

For Big Air, the World Cup has become the main focus of competition outside of the X Games, and even the Big Air competition at the X Games is very small, and somewhat of a side-show.

 

Halfpipe is more in line with Slopestyle. There remains a few major invitationals outside the World Cup/World Champships, but you still see many of the best boarders attending FIS events.

 

I wouldn’t call the X Games the “de facto” World Championships. They’re just to exclusive. Their focus on American competitors has stymied (or lowered the potential) growth of the sport in some ways. That’s just my opinion though.

 

I do agree that FIS events are only given the time of day for the most part because of Olympic qualification. I have suggested that it would be in the best interest of the sport to create it’s own federation. FIS contempt for Snowboarding is more evident when you look at the quota cuts by discipline for Beijing. Snowboarding has some of the great diversity in terms of competing nations and your interest, yet the FIS cut more quotas there than the likes of Nordic Combined or Ski Jumping.

[Monzanator 907]

I have to admit, snowboard cross is exciting but then again I come from a motor racing background so I enjoy the race style of a event.

 

Slopestyle, Half-pipe or Big Air? Neah, not so much.

 

I mean Aerials was an Olympic event long before Big Air ever became a thing and it's like a totally Asian/ex-USSR event with some one-offs from Australia.

 

FIS is run by Norway and that won't change for a long, long time. They don't see the value of expanding the nations pool which is quite shallow by default due to snow being non-existent in half of the world.

[NearPup 477]

Aerials vs big air is actually kind of funny. On the surface they are very similar but there is literally zero overlap between the athletes, and the judging is also very different (if you did an aerials trick in a big air contest you’d get very low scores, and vice versa). The culture around them is extremely different, too.

 

I actually think of all the Olympic snowboard / freestyle skiing events slopestyle is the most important, because it best replicates the kind of thing a recreational snowboarder or freestyle skier does (but at a bigger scale, obviously).

[rybak 1,369]

Wow, we have to athletes from  in start list for tomorrow parallel giant slalom 

[Gianlu33 1,867]

Not a good day for Italy, btw 4th place for capitan Fish

[hckošice 5,003]

Stage 4

 

Carezza (ITA) - 17 December 2020

Women's Parallel Giant Slalom (2/7)
Final Results

 

HOFMEISTER Ramona Theresia
-Big Final

 

JENNY Ladina
-Big Final

 

JOERG Selina
-Small Final

 

 

Full Results HERE

[hckošice 5,003]

Stage 4

 

Carezza (ITA) - 17 December 2020

 

Men's Parallel Giant Slalom (2/7)
Final Results

 

KARL Benjamin
-Big Final

 

PROMMEGGER Andreas
-Big Final

 

KOSIR Zan
-Small Final

 

 

Full Results HERE

[hckošice 5,003]

Klaudia 7th in Kreischberg Qualifiers

[hckošice 5,003]

Stage 7

 

Scuol (SUI) - 9 January 2021

 

Women's Parallel Giant Slalom (3/7)
Final Results

 

NADYRSHINA Sofia
-Big Final

 

HOFMEISTER Ramona Theresia
-Big Final

 

ZOGG Julie
-Small Final

 

 

Full Results HERE