Winkelmann Earns Third at Spinderluv Mlyn World Cup Slopestyle

U.S. Snowboard Slopestyle team rider Luke Winkelmann earned third place at the Spinderluv Mlyn SnowJam slopestyle World Cup. This marks the second FIS World Cup podium for the 21-year-old, who made his first podium in January at the Calgary Snow Rodeo, also in third place.

Winkelmann took third place on his first run and held on all the way to the end, bumping up his score to 85.50 on his second run as the last rider to drop.  

Winkelmann landed two completely different runs, increasing the difficulty in his second run linking together a switch lipslide pretzel out on the upper rail, into a frontside double 1260, into a Cab 720 double nosegrab, into the second rail feature with a switch boardslide 270 out onto the butter box into switch backside 360 off, and finishing with a switch backside triple cork 1440.

“Going after Tian [Collins], William [Mathisen], Sven [Thorgren] and Dusty [Henricksen] is always nerve-wracking when you’re sitting in third and you don’t know if it’s going to stick,” said Winkelmann. “I was so happy to do the run that I really wanted to do in finals and not just my safety run. So, I’m just happy it worked out.

As for earning his second World Cup podium of the season, Winkelmann shared, “Calgary was insane, that was awesome to get on the podium, and I just wanted to feel that again and know I still got it, and I’m just so happy today worked out!”

After qualifying first in his heat Friday, Dusty Henricksen landed in ninth place in finals with a score of 59.5. New Zealand’s Tiarn Collins earned first with a score of 90.25, followed by Sweden’s William Mathisen in second with a score of 86.75, both putting down 1620s in their runs.

Winkelmann is now in fourth place in the World Cup standings. U.S. teammate Sean Fitzsimons is in eighth and Red Gerard is in ninth to round out the top ten.

The season's final FIS World Cup slopestyle competition is up next, March 25–27, at the Corvatsch ski resort in Silvaplana, Switzerland. 

Full Results
Men’s Finals
Women’s Finals