The push toward the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics heats up with two huge park and pipe events on opposite sides of the globe.

In China, Scotty James and Ayumu Hirano return to the Beijing 2022 Olympic halfpipe for their first showdown of the season. In Colorado, Olympic spots for Team USA are on the line as freeskiers and snowboarders compete in a big air selection event.

Here’s a preview of what to expect from each of this week’s park and pipe World Cup events.

Secret Garden World Cup (Halfpipe)

The halfpipe World Cup season kicks off at Secret Garden Resort in China. This venue, which hosted the halfpipe competitions at the last Winter Olympics, was also the site of last week’s Snow League event.

Secret Garden will be the first of five World Cup halfpipe events leading up the Winter Olympics. Snowboarders will compete at all five, while freeskiers will only compete at four of them. Athletes can earn points toward the quota allocation list that serves as the basis for determining Olympic quota spots.

Snowboard Halfpipe

Last week’s Snow League event gave us an early look at what’s to come this season, but the men’s final at Secret Garden will be the first chance to see all the top gold medal contenders together in a traditional contest format.

This will be the first halfpipe contest of the season for Australia’s James. After unlocking the triple cork last season, James won titles at the Laax Open, X Games and 2025 World Championships — arguably the three biggest events on last season’s schedule.

James’ biggest competition will come from Team Japan. Ayumu Hirano, Yuto Totsuka and Ruka Hirano have already established themselves as contenders, but 19-year-old Ryusei Yamada and 20-year-old Shuichiro Shigeno are on the rise as well.

The men’s field also includes rising star Cam Melville Ives of New Zealand. Last week at Snow League, Melville Ives attempted back-to-back triple corks, a trick combination that has never been landed in a halfpipe contest.

With American stars Chloe Kim and Maddie Mastro skipping this event, the women’s final will be headlined by teenagers Gaon Choi (South Korea) and Rise Kudo (Japan). Other notable finalists include two-time World Cup champion Mitsuki Ono and veterans Queralt Castellet and Cai Xuetong.

Freeski Halfpipe

Fresh off their thrilling head-to-head duel at Snow League, Canada’s Brendan Mackay and New Zealand’s Luke Harrold are back in the same halfpipe for the first World Cup event of the season. Meanwhile, reigning world champion Fin Melville Ives is slated to make his season debut at Secret Garden after a last-minute scratch from Snow League last week.

Absent from the start list are American stars Alex Ferreira and Nick Goepper. Goepper crashed hard at last week’s Snow League event but said afterward on Instagram that “everything check[ed] out fine.”

Last week’s event also saw the return of Gus Kenworthy, who landed several 1440s and looked impressive in his first contest since the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The British halfpipe skier, who used to compete for the U.S. in slopestyle, is attempting to come out of retirement and qualify for his fourth Olympics — a bid that officially begins this week at Secret Garden.

The women’s field is stacked with top contenders, but the clear favorite is Eileen Gu. The multi-discipline superstar has won nine of the 10 World Cup halfpipe events she’s entered since the last Olympics.

Zoe Atkin, Cassie Sharpe, Rachael Karker and Li Fanghui will be among Gu’s leading challengers.

Steamboat World Cup (Big Air)

Steamboat Ski Resort in Colorado is the site for the World Cup circuit’s third straight weekend of big air competition. Although the freeskiers have one event still to come in March, this will draw the curtain on the circuit’s snowboard big air campaign.

Athletes can earn points toward the quota allocation list that serves as the basis for determining Olympic quota spots. Since slopestyle and big air are counted as one event for qualification purposes, there will be additional opportunities to earn points by competing in World Cup slopestyle events next month.

This competition also serves as a selection event for the U.S. snowboard and freeski Olympic teams. The selection process, which is explained more below, is slightly different in each sport.

Freeski Big Air

  • Date: Saturday, Dec. 13
  • Time: 12:30 p.m. ET
  • Platform: Outside TV
  • TV Broadcast (Delayed): 2:30 p.m. ET on CNBC and Peacock

Because the men’s slopestyle contest at Stubai got cancelled last month, this World Cup stop at Steamboat will be the second of four selection events for the U.S. men and the third of five events for the U.S. women.

So far, Alex Hall is the only athlete qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in freeski slopestyle and big air. After January’s Laax Open, up to two men and up to three women can automatically be named to the team based on their single best podium result at one of the selection events. The team is expected to include four men and four women in total.

The only athlete with a podium result so far is Troy Podmilsak, who won last month’s big air contest at Secret Garden. If Podmilsak were to win this event at Steamboat, he would be the next freeskier to mathematically lock up an Olympic spot. Even without a win, the 21-year-old is already in a great position to make the team.

Mac Forehand, who finished 4th in the first selection event, and Colby Stevenson are currently considered the favorites for the other two men’s spots, but things could change quickly if one of the other skiers on this deep U.S. team were to land on the podium at Steamboat.

Finishing on the podium won’t be a simple task given the strength of the international field. New Zealand’s Luca Harrington, Italy’s Miro Tabanelli and Norway’s Ulrik Samnoey, who won the most recent big air event, are among the skiers set to compete.

Meanwhile, the competition for Olympic spots remains wide open among the U.S. women. If fewer than three women earn podium finishes at a selection event, each athlete’s single best result would ultimately become a deciding factor. After the first two selection events, Grace Henderson has the highest finish (6th) among U.S. women right now.

Three-time X Games medalist Rell Harwood and 2022 Olympian Marin Hamill are the other top Americans in the mix at Steamboat.

The international field includes Great Britain’s Kirsty Muir, Finland’s Anni Karava, Canada’s Naomi Urness and China’s Liu Mengting. That quartet has made up the top four at each of the season’s first two events.

Snowboard Big Air

  • Date: Saturday, Dec. 13
  • Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
  • Platform: Outside TV

The third and final snowboard big air event of the World Cup season takes place at Steamboat, and this result will decide the Crystal Globe winners.

China’s Su Yiming currently leads the men’s World Cup standings by a wide margin after winning the first two events, but the 21-year-old isn’t competing at Steamboat. If either Ge Chunyu or Japan’s Kira Kimura wins the event, they would surpass Su and take the Crystal Globe.

The title race is much more wide open on the women’s side, but Japan’s Miyabi Onitsuka will enter with the advantage. Mari Fukada and Mia Brookes, the winners from the first two events, are not in the field.

Because Steamboat also serves as the second of four selection events for Team USA, the field includes a lot of Americans, many of whom are competing for the first time this season.

Only Red Gerard has qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in snowboard slopestyle and big air so far. After January’s Laax Open, the two men and (up to) three women with the single best top-10 result at one of the selection events will automatically be named to the team. The team is expected to include four men and four women in total.

The most compelling name on the Steamboat start list might be Jamie Anderson, who is competing at her first contest since the 2022 Beijing Games. The 35-year-old gave birth to two daughters in the years since those Olympics and is now making a comeback in hopes of qualifying for Milan Cortina 2026.

Another notable American in the women’s field is 16-year-old Lily Dhawornvej, who finished 6th in slopestyle at the first selection event held last season.

The start list for the men features 16 Americans and includes Gerard. Ollie Martin, a 17-year-old who ended last season with a series of breakout showings in both slopestyle and big air, is another name to watch.

Sean FitzSimons currently holds the edge in the battle for Olympic spots after a 3rd-place finish at the first slopestyle selection event.