Elliott, Miller Win Banked Slalom Bronze
The 2025 FIS Para Snowboard World Championships started with a bang as Noah Elliott and Zach Miller finished third place in banked slalom, taking home bronze medals in Big White, Canada.
The action in Canada began with banked slalom qualifications on Wednesday, where six U.S. athletes were placed in the top eight to advance to the finals. Elliott took the top spot in the men’s LL1 classification along with Mike Schultz, who qualified third. Miller advanced in the men’s LL2 category in fourth. On the women’s side, Darian Haynes moved on in women’s UL alongside Brenna Huckaby and Kate Delson in women’s LL.
On finals day, the sun was trying to peek out behind clouds, emitting a cool, flat light onto the course. All the U.S. men won their quarterfinals, putting them in contention for a medal. On the women’s side, Huckaby and Delson had incredibly tough matchups and did not advance to the semifinals. Huckaby finished the day fifth and Delson sixth. Haynes finished just off the podium in fourth place.
Miller went up against 2025 overall Crystal Globe winner Emanual Perathoner (ITA) in the semifinals, putting up a great time, but could not overtake the Italian, advancing to the small final. Schultz and Elliott also had tricky matchups in the semis, leading them to advance to the LL1 small final. Elliott and Schultz went head to head in the small final, where Elliott would put down the fastest time of the day for their classification, snagging the bronze medal. Schultz finished the day fourth. Miller took on Keiji Okamoto (JPN) in the small final, winning by over five seconds to earn his seventh World Championships medal.
"A big goal of mine this year was to continue adding to my World Championships medal collection," said Miller. "This season saw a pretty noticeable rise in our sport's skill ceiling and the competitiveness of my LL2 classification. Bringing home another World Championships podium is a great feeling, knowing I’ve been able to check off that goal!"
The athletes take a short break before returning to the snow for snowboard cross World Championships on Sunday, Mar. 9. Tune in on FIS at 1:30 p.m. ET.
