Secret Garden was expected to feature a battle between all the leading gold medal contenders in men’s snowboard halfpipe. Instead, the biggest battle was between the riders and the elements at the first halfpipe World Cup of the season.
Snowy conditions played a major factor in both the men’s and women’s snowboard halfpipe contests as the World Cup circuit returned to the 2022 Beijing Olympic venue. None of the top riders in the men's field were able to land their optimal run, and many riders in both fields crashed without even completing a full run.
Nevertheless, a trio of familiar names ended up on the men's podium, as Ayumu Hirano, Yuto Totsuka and Ruka Hirano were each able to put down one strong run to give Japan a sweep. Ayumu’s winning run opened with the switch backside double cork 1260 nose grab that he recently added to his arsenal, then transitioned into a cab double cork 1440 and back-to-back double cork 1260s before squeezing in a frontside double cork 1440 tail grab right as he was about to run out of pipe.
While Ruka only placed 3rd, his run featured a switch backside double cork 1440 — a trick that’s never been done in halfpipe competition — with a nose grab. It’s the latest step in a recent trend of riders learning advanced switch backside tricks that were once the domain of Australia’s Scotty James. (Of the four main ways to spin down a halfpipe, switch backside rotations are considered the most difficult.)
All three Japanese riders are considered gold medal contenders for the upcoming Milan Cortina Olympics alongside James.
James, making his season debut, placed 10th. He ran out of pipe before finishing his planned routine on Run 1, then crashed on his first hit on Run 2.
This event was billed as the first true Olympic preview of the season in men’s halfpipe, but given the impact of the weather, it’s hard to draw many conclusions from the results.
In the women’s contest, it was South Korea’s Gaon Choi, 17, taking an emphatic win. Despite the snow, she maintained loads of amplitude throughout her second run as she landed a switch backside 720 stalefish, backside 900 stalefish, frontside 1080 melon, cab 720 double grab and frontside 720 indy. Her score of 92.75 bumped another teenager, 16-year-old Rise Kudo of Japan, out of the top spot.
“Today’s pipe is so slow, so waxing is important,” Choi noted afterward. “I was scared up there, but [I told myself to] relax and breathe.”
U.S. stars Chloe Kim and Maddie Mastro weren’t in the field for this event.
The circuit heads to Copper Mountain in Colorado next week for a U.S. Grand Prix event that also serves as the second stop of the World Cup halfpipe season and a selection event for the U.S. Olympic team.
Secret Garden will host men's and women's freeski halfpipe finals on Saturday, which is late Friday night in the United States. Meanwhile, the Visa Big Air event in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, is also underway, with finals in freeskiing and snowboarding on tap for Saturday afternoon.
Men’s Snowboard Halfpipe
1. Ayumu Hirano (JPN), 93.50
2. Yuto Totsuka (JPN), 90.25
3. Ruka Hirano (JPN), 89.00
4. Pat Burgener (BRA), 81.25
5. Ryusei Yamada (JPN), 80.50
6. Jio Lee (KOR), 75.25
7. Konosuke Murakami (JPN), 74.00
8. Wang Ziyang (CHN), 70.00
9. Kim Geon-Hui (KOR), 55.75
10. Scotty James (AUS), 50.00
11. Cam Melville Ives (NZL), 46.25
12. Kaishu Hirano (JPN), 44.50
13. Shuichiro Shigeno (JPN), 37.00
14. Chaeun Lee (KOR), 34.50
Women’s Snowboard Halfpipe
1. Gaon Choi (KOR), 92.75
2. Rise Kudo (JPN), 90.25
3. Cai Xuetong (CHN), 80.50
4. Wu Shaotong (CHN), 67.00
5. Isabelle Loetscher (SUI), 59.75
6. Brooke D’Hondt (CAN), 56.00
7. Queralt Castellet (ESP), 54.25
8. Sorana Ohashi (JPN), 52.00
9. Mitsuki Ono (JPN), 44.00
10. Liu Jiayu (CHN), 29.00