Two World Cup Golds and One Silver For Australian Snow Athletes on the Weekend
Mountainwatch | Press Release
Scotty James has produced one of the best runs of his impressive halfpipe career, to claim the gold medal at the Laax Open in Switzerland, the tenth World Cup victory of his career and fourth win at the prestigious event.
In the best-of-two run night final, the two-time Olympic medallist opened with a score of 88.75 points, then stepped it up in the final run to put down a spectacular performance that included a massive switch frontside triple cork 1440 on his way to a huge score of 95.75.
James took the win ahead of Japanese rider Ruka Hirano’s score of 93.75, while compatriot and reigning Olympic halfpipe champion Ayumu Hirano was third with a run one score of 87.00.
“I think it might be one of the best moments of my competitive career” said the 30-year-old from Warrandyte in Victoria. “It’s always challenging to win, but this year I feel like I have been put on the ropes quite a bit from the other competitors, especially the Japanese, they are riding incredible.
“Not for a second did I think it was a done deal until the last rider went because any rider could have won.
“It’s always been a super important detail for me to spin in every direction, and try and keep a bit of soul in there with the switch McTwist at the start before it gets into a lot of spinning, really happy to get the triple in there this year as well which was a big goal of mine.
“It’s one of the best pipes in the world, there are no excuses but to go 110% on this thing, so you’ve got to bring your best if you want to stand on top, or even on the podium for that matter.”
The victory puts James move into equal first place on the World Cup standings alongside Yuto Totsuka of Japan on 230 points.
Competing in the women’s event for Australia was two-time Olympian Emily Arthur, who finished in 24th place.
American riders took the top two places in the women’s final with two-time Olympic gold medallist Chloe Kim victorious ahead of Maddie Mastro in second and Gaon Choi of Korea in third.
James will now head to Aspen, USA, to compete in the X-Games on January 23, where he will be aiming to win an incredible fourth straight and seventh career X-Games gold medal.
Silver for Danielle Scott In Season-Opening Aerials World Cup
Danielle Scott has made a great start to the FIS Aerial Skiing World Cup season with a silver medal performance at the first event of the year in Lake Placid, USA, claiming the 22nd World Cup medal of her career.
The back-to-back defending World Cup Champion performed well in all three stages of the competition, placing second in the opening qualifications, and then secured her spot in the medal round by leading the first round of finals with an impressive full-full double twisting double back somersault that scored 92.29 points.
In the super-final medal round, Scott increased her degree of difficult to perform a triple twisting double back somersault, scoring 95.17 points, falling agonisingly close to victory by the small margin of 0.35 points, giving 2022 Olympic Champion Mengtao Xu of China the gold medal on 95.52. Rounding out the podium in third with a score of 90.94 was Canadian Marion Thenault.
“Pretty stoked, it was awesome to get back in the start gate again, this year has been a pretty big ride on a rollercoaster, so grateful to just be here,” said the 34-year-old Scott from NSW, who trains in Brisbane at the Geoff Henke Olympic Winter Training Centre water jump facility.
“Today had everything weather wise, head winds to tail winds to falling snow, to everything changing on us in such small windows, very grateful and happy for my coaches for getting all the attention to detail right and trusting everything out there.
Abbey Willcox also qualified for the final in fifth place and went on to finish in eighth in the first round of finals. Missing out on the final was Airliegh Frigo in 20th and double World Champion Laura Peel in 21st.
Also competing for Australia in their World Cup debuts were Sidney Stephens in 28th, Elise Coleiro 29th and Reilly Flanagan 29th.
Ben Tudhope Back on Top
After Saturday’s racing was cancelled due to weather, Ben Tudhope returned on Sunday to claim his first Para Snowboard SBX World Cup win of the season at Pyha in Finland.
Ben was the third fastest in qualifying and then went to win the semi and final. Canada’s Alex Massie took the silver ahead of Emanuel Perathoner, Italy, in third.
Aaron McCarthy also scored a podium finish with a bronze medal in just his third European Cup start! Strong runs also in the European Cup from Sean Pollard with a 4th place finish and Kiwi training partner Ben Johnston scored a 5th.
Stay across our athletes results this Northern Hemisphere season and check dates and time for events and live streaming at snowaustralia.org.au
