That’s a wrap for the 2022 Laax Open and it was definitely one for the books! The Slopestyle and Pipe were both greeted with epic conditions for a showdown!
First up was female Slopestyle. None other than Australia’s own Tess Coady took out first place and a nice paycheck of around $33,000 AUD with a solid winning run which included a switch back 9 and frontside double 1080. Power moves from Tess. In second place was Anna Gasser who put down back to back doubles on the jumps and in third was Annika Morgan. Check out Tess’ winning run below:
Following the females was the men’s slopestyle finals where American rider Sean Fitzsimmons took out the top spot! Closely followed by everyone’s favourite Norwegian rider, Staale Sandbech in second place. Third place went to fellow American rider Jake Canter who has been putting on a clinic this World Cup season. Check out Sean’s winning run below:
After Slope wrapped up. It was straight into the pipe under the lights. Laax his home to what is renowned amongst riders as the best pipe in the world, and conditions lined up perfectly for a full showdown.
Ayumu Hirano is unstoppable! Going XXL on every hit, making his fellow competitors shake in their boots…he took out the top spot, making it look way too easy. In second place was Swiss snowboarder Jan Scherrer who put down a solid, clean and effortless run. In third, was Shaun White who finally put down the run he’s been trying for the past few events. Shaun is now officially heading to Beijing with the US Olympic Team to compete. Making it his fifth Winter Olympics.
Big shoutout to 16 year old Aussie, Valentino Guseli for putting down a solid run and landing in 5th place!
Watch Ayumu’s winning run below:
In the females pipe, it was the queen Chloe Kim who took out another gold. No surprises here. Chloe has proven to be best female pipe rider by a long shot and is heading into these Winter Olympics stronger than ever. In second place was Japanese rider Mitsuki Ono who has been on fire throughout the entire event. In third place was frequent World Cup podium rider Queralt Castellet. Watch Chloe Kims winning run below:
With the Olympics only now 2 weeks away till kick off it’s game on. There’s one more event for riders looking to still stack points and cash coming up this coming weekend – X Games Aspen.
Stay tuned as we’ll be covering the entire event. Click here to be in the know on the go.
