Faye Gulini took second place at the finals of the FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup tour 2021/22 at Veysonnaz, Switzerland. This marks a stellar end of the season for the U.S. Snowboard Team pro rider, who started her season off with a second-place finish at the Cervinia World Cup. Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Jacobellis finished in ninth, with Stacy Gaskill in 13th.

The women’s big final consisted of Gulini, Great Britain’s Charlotte Bankes, France’s Manon Petit Lenoir and Canadian Audrey McManiman. Gulini took the lead from the start and held it through the upper section, powering through the jumps where fourth-place finisher McManiman crashed out. Bankes eventually overtook Gulini through a banked turn midway through the course. Gulini confidently held onto second place across the finish line, followed by Lenoir in third.

“After another stressful season and a lot of adversity thrown at our team this season, I couldn’t be happier to be standing atop a podium here at the World Cup Finals,” said Gulini.

In the men’s field, Senna Leith had the top finish for the men in ninth, with Mick Dierdorff and Hagen Kearney finishing in 17th and Jake Vedder in 25th.

The U.S. Snowboardcross team ends this season with six World Cup podiums—with Gulini, Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner earning two podiums each. Add to this two gold medals at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing, where Jacobellis earned gold in women’s snowboardcross, then teaming up with Baumgartner to win gold in the inaugural mixed team event to bring the U.S. team podiums to eight for the season. 

Women’s Finals
Men’s Finals

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

The 2022 U.S. Freeski Junior World Championships team earned a total of eleven medals during the six-day competition in Leysin, Switzerland, with the freeski team earning nine medals and two in snowboard.

“We’re very excited to return to Junior World Championships after a two-year break due to Covid, says U.S. Ski & Snowboard Sport Development Director Ashley Deibold, “The U.S. has a lot of very talented development athletes coming up through our pipeline and it was great to see how they stacked up against the best development athletes from around the world. We are proud of all of our Junior Worlds team athletes and it’s a bonus to be bring home eleven medals from Leysin.”

The freeski team earned nine of the 18 medals with several athletes earning multiple medals. U.S. Freeski Rookie Team athlete Troy Podmilsak earned gold in big air and slopestyle. Kate Gray, a member of the Mammoth Mountain Ski & Snowboard Club, medaled in all three disciplines earning two silvers and a bronze. While Matt Labaugh with the Ski & Snowboard Club Vail, took home a pair of silver medals in halfpipe and slopestyle. 

Congratulations to all of the skiers and snowboarders for a great week of competition. The future is bright! 

FREESKI

Men’s Freeski Halfpipe
Silver: Matt Labaugh (Ski & Snowboard Club Vail, Rocky Mountain Series)
Bronze: Ben Fethke 

Women’s Freeski Halfpipe
Silver: Kate Gray (Mammoth Mountain Freeski Team, Unbound Series)
Bronze: Piper Arnold (Sierra at Tahoe Competition Team, South Tahoe Series)

Men’s Freeski Big Air
Gold: Troy Podmilsak (U.S. Freeski Rookie Slopestyle Team, Park City Ski Team, Big Mountain West Series)

Women’s Freeski Big Air
Silver: Kate Gray (Mammoth Mountain Freeski Team, Unbound Series)

Men’s Freeski Slopestyle
Gold: Troy Podmilsak (U.S. Freeski Rookie Slopestyle Team, Park City Ski Team, Big Mountain West Series)
Silver: Matt Labaugh (Ski & Snowboard Club Vail, Rocky Mountain Series)

Women’s Freeski Slopestyle
Bronze: Kate Gray (Mammoth Mountain Freeski Team, Unbound Series)

SNOWBOARD

Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle
Bronze: Fynn Bullock-Womble (U.S. Snowboard Rookie Team, Rocky Mountain Series)

Women’s Snowboard Halfpipe
Silver: Bea Kim (U.S. Snowboard Halfpipe Rookie Team, Mammoth Mountain Snowboard Team, Unbound Series)

Complete Freeski Results
Complete Snowboard Results