Olympic Homecoming for Corning, Fifth in Beijing Big Air
The FIS Park & Pipe World Cup returned to Beijing’s iconic Shougang Park for the second big air competition of the 2024-25 season. Eighty-one riders looked to throw down against the backdrop of the former steel mill, the site of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games big air Olympic venue.
Saturday, Nov. 30, qualifications featured a young American squad of seven Hydro Flask U.S. Snowboard Team rookies. In her first World Cup start, 15-year-old Lily Dhawornvej proved her place on the World Cup stage by stomping all three of her runs - a back 7 stalefish, front 7 indy and back 9 stalefish - and finished the contest with an impressive 13th place finish. Dhawornvej was joined by Hahna Norman, who followed up her first-career 1080 in competition at last month’s Big Air Chur with a respectable 17th-place finish amongst a field of heavy hitters.
On the men’s side, Brooklyn Depriest and Fynn Bullock finished within the top 30 - an impressive feat in a stacked field of riders, with only five from each heat moving on to finals. Returning to the same venue where he landed the first quad-cork in Olympic history, veteran and team captain Chris Corning punched his ticket to the big show with a fifth-place qualification finish.
With the most big air World Cup wins amongst the field of active riders, Corning’s experience was evident and he showed composure under pressure by landing all three of his runs under the lights in Beijing. An impressive combo of a back 18 melon and two front 18 melons earned him fifth place.
It was a wild and historic night as Italy’s Ian Matteoli stomped the first-ever 2160 in competition, but he was edged out for the win by Japan’s Hiroto Ogiwara by a mere four points. On home soil, China’s Wenlong Yang earned his first World Cup podium with a third-place result to round out the top 3.
The Hydro Flask U.S. Snowboard Slopestyle Team returns stateside to train at Idaho’s Soldier Mountain before heading out for a pair of big air competitions at the start of the new year.
