Saturday, 15th January, saw the conclusion of the last FIS Snowboard World Cup before the Olympic Games at the Laax Open in Switzerland, with the slopestye & halfpipe finals. Not only were the riders battling out for a share of 140k of Swiss francs, but for some of the final places for their Olympic dreams next month.

In the mens slopestyle it was the relatively unknown American youngster Sean Fitzsimmons, who put together the best run of the day with a score of 80.91 points ahead of Norway’s Staale Sandbech and Jake Canter from the US in third place

In the women’s event, 21-year old Australian rider Tess Coady dominated the competition in a thrilling final, scoring the two highest runs of the day, leading to her first ever Laax Open title putting overall World Cup winner 2020/21. She was leading after the first run, she topped her own high score in the second run with an incredible run which include a crazy 1080, taking home 86.18 points: “Winning here means the world to me!”

In second place is Olympic champion Anna Gasser (AUT), making it onto the podium at Crap Sogn Gion for the first time since 2017. Third and for the first time in the top three in LAAX is young Annika Morgan (GER) with a sensational second run.

Winning Runs:

Tess Coady:
Cab 1 to backside 3 on the first rail, wallride to frontside crippler on the uprail, frontside 180 to switch backside 360 on the butter feature, first kicker with a switch backside 900 weddle, followed by frontside double 1080 Indy on the Red Bull kicker and a Backside Air in the quarter pipe to finish things off.

Sean Fitzsimons:
Cab 2 on 2 off, boardslide Underflip 6 tailgrab, frontside miller flip Double hand drag on the knuckle feature, frontside triple 1440 weddle, backside triple 1440 weddle, frontside 720 stale.

Results

Slopestyle Men

1. FITZSIMONS Sean (USA)
2. SANDBECH Staale (NOR)
3. CANTER Jake (USA)

Slopestyle Women

1. COADY Tess (AUS)
2. GASSER Anna (AUT)
3. MORGAN Annika (GER)