Kauf Second in Val St. Côme Moguls; Six Women in the Finals
The Stifel U.S. Freestyle Ski Team moguls athletes kicked off the second period of their competition schedule under the lights in Val St. Côme, Canada. Jaelin Kauf led the way for the United States, landing in second place and earning her 29th World Cup podium.
It was a cold, crisp evening with temperatures hovering around zero degrees Fahrenheit, making it the coldest competition of the season so far. The bumps were soft, proving challenging for many athletes, leading to more DNFs than the average competition.
The U.S. women have dominated the circuit this season, and today proved no different despite the conditions. All six Stifel U.S. Freestyle Ski Team women’s moguls athletes qualified for the finals alongside two U.S. men. Just off the podium was Alli Macuga, tying her personal best moguls result in fourth, followed by Hannah Soar in fifth, Olivia Giaccio in sixth, Tess Johnson in seventh and Kasey Hogg in 11th.
"Honestly, it took a little bit to figure it out again and put all the pieces together. It felt like I’d been out of competing for a while, but I felt like that last run I finally hit my stride again," said Kauf. "I think tomorrow I'm focusing on hitting that top air takeoff and let it go from there - trust that I have the pace and turns in the middle to win every run. I think it was a little bit of a weird event for everyone, but this girl's team especially really crushed it out there, even with not hitting everything how we wanted. Kasey started off the day stomping a cork 10 in qualifications, and Olivia followed suit in finals. It was super inspiring to see our girl's team continuing to push the field."
Cole McDonald and Nick Page qualified for finals for the men, finishing 10th and 11th, respectively. Just outside finals was Dylan Walczyk in 18th, Landon Wendler in 30th, Nash Lucas in 31st and Dylan Marcellini in 36th. Today was Lucas’ first World Cup start after earning the spot during the 2024 U.S. Freestyle Selections in December.
The team has spent the last few weeks at home in Park City, Utah, having a successful training camp. This training and focus on tricks paid off, as during today’s event, Kasey Hogg became the first woman to throw a cork 10 in a qualification. Hogg followed in the footsteps of her teammate, Olivia Giaccio, who was the first woman to ever do a cork 10 in a competition.
"I am so excited to be back in World Cup competitions. That atmosphere is always awesome, and skiing with the rest of the World Cup team is super fun," said Hogg. "It felt incredible to throw a cork 1080 in both my qualifying and finals run today! It has been a goal of mine to compete this trick, and I felt like the time was right. Only having done a 1080 in my full top to bottom run just the day before comp was a challenge, but I’m so glad I decided to compete it today. I’ve spent a lot of time practicing this trick on the trampoline, water ramps, and snow, and competing at the World Cup level was a dream come true. I am so eager for the rest of the season and improving even more as the season goes on!"
Tomorrow, the team takes on the dual moguls in Val St. Côme starting at 7:00 p.m. ET, live on skiandsnowboard.live.
