Three in Top Eight at World Championships
It was the most successful days in recent Hydro Flask U.S. Snowboard Team history, with three American men finishing in the top eight in the highly contested 2025 World Championships individual final. Having three athletes in the final has not been achieved at World Championships since 2011 in La Molina.
Leading the charge for the Americans was Olympic gold medalist Nick Baumgartner who came into Friday’s final seeded ninth overall from Thursday’s round of qualifications. The veteran was followed by Olympian Jake Vedder, 2024 FIS Rookie of the Year Nathan Pare and Olympian Cody Winters, who was set to make his fourth appearance at the 2025 World Championships after successful rounds of racing in the alpine snowboarding disciplines the week prior.
Winters fell in the first round of sixteen against a heavy heat, ending his chances at another top 10 world championships finish, but the veteran Baumgartner reignited the American’s hops at a big World Championships showing, taking second place in the round of 16 and first place in the round of eighth, to earn a ticket to semi finals. A near catastrophic mistake almost took Baumgartner out of contention for the final heats but the veteran showed why he’s one of the best to ever do it, fighting to get his board back under his feet and fight back to earn a spot to the small final.
Baumgartner joked that the mistake almost ended his career, saying “all that was going through my mind was save it, save it save it and put this plank of wood back on the snow. I think that’s where my 20 years of experience gives me an advantage,” the veteran continued, “when something goes wrong, rather than just accept it and go with it I fight for my run and to at least finish the heat. I learned from that mistake and let it motivate me to perform in the small final.”
Seeded in the same heat to start of the day based on qualifying times, Vedder and Pare would have to take the top two spots in each round of racing to both continue to advance. The Americans did just that, ultimately joining teammate Baumgartner in the small final. Roommates throughout their stay in St. Moritz for World Championships, the duo chanted “Room 315” as they raced their way to the consolation final.
All with something to prove, the trio took to the start gate and delivered a small final for the ages, taking the top-three spots in the heat. Baumgarter led the red, white and blue and took fifth place on the day, Pare finished just behind him in sixth and Vedder rounded out American’s in seventh.
All smiles in the finish, Baumgartner remarked, “today was awesome. It doesn’t matter how much older I get, this stuff is still just as fun. I went into the small final determined to fix my error from the semis and won which is really rewarding. I had a blast with my teammates going five, six and seven. It’s a really good day.”
“I’m super excited with how today went for my first World Championships,” said Pare as he stood with his teammates in the finish.” We for sure wanted to get the U.S. on one of the top steps but super happy to ride all the way through the day with Jake and I can’t ask for anything more going into Olympic qualifications - this is the closest thing you can get to it so it’s pretty good preparation and I’m really excited for what’s to come.
Vedder echoed his teammates, saying “I’m honestly just really proud of the team. It’s really cool to have three of us in the top eight and was fun to have my roommate, Nate Pare, push me through every single heat. We all have potential to be in the big final but we’ll take this for sure. Let’s go Room 315.”
Brianna Schnoorbusch and Acy Craig represented the American’s on the women’s side of competition but both fell in the quarterfinal round. The two have another shot at the challenging course tomorrow in the World Championships mixed team event, with Craig pairing up with Baumgartner and Schnoorbusch teaming up with Pare to take on the final snowboard cross event at the 2025 FIS World Championships.
We’re gonna give the team event everything we got,” said Baumgartner. “It’s obviously for a spot on the World Championships podium but it’s a big opportunity to give these young riders an experience to race on one of the biggest stages as we get closer to the Olympics next year. It’s gonna be a wild one, but we’re ready.”
Saturday’s mixed team event caps off snowboard cross competition at the 2025 FIS World Championships but the team’s season isn’t over just yet as they travel to Mt. Saint Anne for a World Cup double header that marks the first qualifying event towards the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
