U.S. Ski Halfpipe Stars Gear Up for Olympic Qualification at Copper Mountain

Double Olympic Halfpipe champion and Beijing 2022 silver medalist David Sensible involves Copper hoping to enhance on his twelfth place end in Secret Backyard on 13 December. Sensible was fifth in Copper final 12 months after beforehand profitable the occasion in 2014 and 2017. Sensible was additionally the third skier alongside runner-up Ferreira and winner Goepper on the Secret Backyard podium in 2024, the primary of two U.S. podium sweeps final World Cup season.

Hunter Hess was the one U.S. skier to complete on the rostrum in Secret Backyard final week with third place, adopted by Birk Irving in fourth, Matthew Labaugh in fifth, and Nick Geiser in sixth. Labaugh was the highest qualifier going into the ultimate, and final season the 21-year-old completed third in Aspen to present the USA its second podium sweep of the season alongside Ferreira in first place and Goepper in second. Labaugh’s Aspen consequence marked his first World Cup podium out of twenty-two begins since his tour debut in 2021.

Secret Backyard winner Finley Melville Ives and fellow New Zealander and Secret Backyard runner-up Luke Harrold won’t compete in Copper. The U.S. delegation’s predominant challengers in Copper are Canada’s Andrew Longino and Dylan Marineau, who completed seventh and fifteenth respectively in Secret Backyard. Fellow Canadian and 2023 World Champion Brendan Mackay is just not competing in Copper after the 28-year-old completed final within the 14-man ultimate in Secret Backyard.

On the ladies’s aspect, final season’s joint ladies’s Halfpipe Crystal Globe winner Zoe Atkin (GBR) leads the sector of 25 ladies in Copper. The 22-year-old British skier involves Copper buoyed by her second-place end in Secret Backyard behind double Olympic champion Eileen Gu, who won’t contest the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix this week. Fellow Chinese language skier Li Fanghui shared the 2024/25 Halfpipe Globe with Atkin however started the brand new season with ninth place in Secret Backyard. Teammate Zhang Kexin completed fifth in Secret Backyard after beforehand profitable the 2018 and 2017 editions.