Freestyle skiing and snowboard Big Air 2023/24 World Cup season preview: Full schedule and stars to watch
Iconic venues, world champions and junior superstars - the 2023/24 season promises to be a rollercoaster of emotions and boundary-pushing tricks as athletes hit the mid-way mark to the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Games. Read all about the upcoming season and top skiers and riders to watch.
Nothing says the start of the freestyle skiing and snowboard season like a dizzying jump from a ramp more than 45 metres above ground.
The world's best freeskiers and snowboarders will begin the quest for the crystal globes by taking off from the biggest scaffold jump ever built in Switzerland when the Big Air Chur Festival takes place from 20 to 21 October. Four more stops, covering three continents, will follow.
Find out about the Big Air competitions of the upcoming season, the top stars to watch and where to watch all the high-flying action live.
Big Air: Freestyle skiers to watch in the 2023/24 World Cup
Last year’s Big Air opener in Chur drew the biggest crowd of the season with approximately 12,000 people cheering on as Norway’s Birk Ruud and France’s Tess Ledeux claimed victories.
Both skiers went on to win the Big Air crystal globes and will compete in the Swiss event again to start the 2023/24 season in style.
Ledeux has never lost in Chur and is now looking to extend her winning streak to three consecutive events. Aside from her success in Switzerland, the French freestyler comes in as the reigning world champion in Big Air and the female athlete with the most freeski World Cup victories, currently adding up to 11.
Her top competition this season is expected to come from Olympic and world slopestyle champion Mathilde Gremaud and rising Canadian star Megan Oldham. The Swiss freeski veteran tied with Ledeux for Big Air points last season and also celebrated her career’s 15th World Cup podium.
For Oldham, winning the Big Air crystal globe would also be a team affair as it would help lead Canada to their third consecutive Nations Cup. And she has every possibility of accomplishing that. Oldham is a two-time X Games champion in Big Air and has also challenged Ledeux on multiple occasions, including at the 2023 FIS Freestyle World Championships in Bakuriani, Georgia where she took bronze.
On the men’s side, Ruud is the man to beat. The Norwegian finished last season with three crystal globes - in slopestyle, Big Air and park & pipe overall - which made him the first freeskier to win back-to-back overall crystal globes. To top it off, he also claimed a world title in slopestyle and a bronze medal in Big Air.
An Olympic champion in Big Air, Ruud has a record nine consecutive World Cup podiums going back to the 2021/22 season and is now hoping to extend it even further.
On the opposite end of the spectrum from the much-decorated Ruud is USA’s teen prodigy Troy Podmilsak. The 19-year-old caused a sensation when he won the gold medal in Big Air at Bakuriani 2023 after squeezing into the final as the last qualifier.
He won the competition with a forward triple cork 2160, becoming the first athlete to land this trick, the first USA freeskier champion in the event and the youngest men’s Big Air world champion ever.
Big Air: Snowboarders to watch in the 2023/24 World Cup
While Troy Podmilsak is the youngster to watch in freestyle skiing, Hasegawa Taiga is the outstanding youth talent in snowboard.
Two years younger than Podmilsak, the 17-year-old Japanese rider continues to set milestones in every competition he enters. He got his first World Cup win in January 2023, the Big Air world title at Bakuriani 2023 in March, and followed that up with two junior world titles, in Big Air and slopestyle, in Cardrona, New Zealand.
But it is not only medals that are making others take notice of Hasegawa. In 2021, then 15 years old, he made history as the first rider to land 1800-degree spins in all four directions and at 17, he repeated that feat with the 1980 spin.
Hasegawa’s rocket-fast ascent to the top of the snowboarding world poses a challenge to triple threat Valentino Guseli, who excelled across all park & pipe competitions last season. The versatile rider finished the season on top of the Big Air and park & pipe rankings, also becoming the first Australian to win the Big Air crystal globe.
Olympians Chris Corning of the United States and Norway’s Marcus Kleveland and Mons Roisland are also always strong contenders in park & pipe.
On the women’s side, double Olympic and reigning world champion Anna Gasser remains in top shape, becoming the oldest ever Big Air World Cup winner earlier in 2023. She was 31 years, 4 years and 29 days at the time of competition.
Ten years her junior, Iwabuchi Reira walked off with the Big Air crystal globe last season. The Japanese rider also won the event at the 2023 Winter X Games where she became the first female to land a triple underflip and took the title away from Olympic slopestyle champion Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand.
Despite her success at the Olympics and Winter X Games, Sadowski-Synnott only has one crystal globe so far. She topped the rankings in Big Air in 2021 and will be hoping to experience these emotions again this season.
2023/24 FIS Big Air World Cup calendar
Information subject to change. An updated calendar can be found on the FIS Website.
- 20-21 October, 2023
Chur, Switzerland
Ski & snowboard Big Air
- 30 November-2 December 2023
Beijing, China
Ski & Snowboard Big Air
- 8-9 December 2023
Edmonton, Canada
Snowboard Big Air
- 13-16 December 2023
Copper Mountain, USA
Ski & snowboard Big Air
- 13-16 March 2024
Tignes, France
Ski Big Air
TV, live stream coverage during 2023/24 Big Air World Cup season
Discovery Plus is broadcasting FIS freestyle skiing and snowboarding events in Europe.
In North America, tune in to skiandsnowboard.live in the USA and CBC in Canada to watch the events live.
You can also check the live results on the FIS website and app.
