Kirsty Muir makes history while British athletes open their World Cup seasons across Alpine, Cross-Country, and Para Snowboard

British success on the Park & Pipe scene

A historic moment for Kirsty Muir who secured Britain’s first ever Freeski Big Air World Cup victory in her first competition of the season. Muir put down a flawless left double-14 safety and a textbook right double-10 mute to post an insurmountable score of 174.50 to top the leaderboard in Secret Garden. Muir’s victory came having topped the standings after qualifiers and provides a crucial lift for the 21-year-old as she returns to Bejing, where she claimed second place in the 2023 Big Air World Cup contest. 

Following the weather-affected cancellation in Stubai the previous week, Tom Greenway and Chris McCormick were back with a vengeance, each delivering some of their most technically demanding runs. Greenway stomped a switch left-18 stale for a score of 76.60 which put him into 23^rd place and McCormick followed closely behind with a switch right dub-18 tail, bagging him 26^th place with a score of 74.50.

On the snowboard side, Maisie Hill impressed with a huge frontside 1080, while Katie Ormerod put down a clean Cab-9 and backside-7. Txema Mazet-Brown, meanwhile, came narrowly short of landing his Cab triple-16 indy in qualifiers.

More podiums followed at the ‘Rock A Rail’ Europa Cup in Latvia as Ella Hall secured her first win in the women’s ski category, building on her third place in Innsbruck last week. Mia Langridge produced another standout performance and backed-up last week’s podium with another silver medal in the women’s snowboard category, with British athletes proving major contenders on the rail-jam circuit.

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Double Para-Snowboard World Cup in Landgraaf

The Para Snowboard World Cup season kicked off with back-to-back Banked Slalom races in Langraaf. Ollie Hill delivered two excellent runs in the LL2 category, securing a pair of 5^th place finishes with a best time of 38.22.

Matt Hamilton also produced consistent results in the UL category with two 14^th place results, while Nina Sparks placed 11^th on the first day of competition, before a DNF on day two.

Musgrave and Clugnet return to WC action in Ruka

Andrew Musgrave and James Clugnet both made a double appearance at the Cross-Country World Cup in Ruka for their first World Cup of the season. Musgrave opened with a 26^th place in the Interval Start Classic before pushing into the top 20 in the 20km Mass Start Free. Clugnet delivered 42^nd in the Mass Start Free and 49^th in the Sprint Final Classic respectively.

Steudle continues return from injury in Copper Mountain

Roy Steudle also made his first World Cup appearance of the season over in Copper Mountain finishing 66^th as he builds momentum ahead of his next start in Beaver Creek tomorrow.

Header image: Li Runsheng