Park & Pipe - 2023/24 Season Wrap

Our Park & Pipe athletes once again delivered stellar performances across the 2023/24 season.

Across freeski and snowboard, our athletes stood on the podium throughout Europe, North America and Asia, winning a Crystal Globe, World Cup and X-Games gold and even a medal at the Youth Winter Olympic Games. 

Snowboard Park & Pipe

Valentino Guseli experienced another stand out season competing in 11 World Cups for three podiums and a halfpipe victory in Calgary. Going into the final World Cup of the season, Val sat 40 points behind Japan’s Ryoma Kimata on the overall standings. When Kimata missed the slopestyle final in Silvaplana, Val required at least a third place finish or better to move into first overall. A man for the moment, Val finished third in the final and defended his Overall Park & Pipe Crystal Globe.

Tess Coady opened her season in China with her first-ever Big Air World Cup podium, earning a silver medal in Beijing. Coady followed up with finishing just off the podium in fourth at Laax Open in January.

Scotty James competed selectively throughout the season, opening the season with a win at the Secret Garden World Cup in China before another top 10 performance at Copper Mountain. In January, Scotty won his third Laax Open before going on to a record sixth X-Games SuperPipe gold in Aspen.

Emily Arthur had four World Cup starts in the 2024 season, and finished inside the top 12 on three occasions. Her best result came in Calgary when she finished in eighth place, two places away from her two career-high World Cup results of sixth. Arthur finished 11th at Mammoth Mountain where she competed along Misaki Vaughan, who made her World Cup debut. 

Paige Jones finished the season 12th on the Europe Cup overall standings after finishing ninth in big air.

The 2023 Junior World Championships in New Zealand were a success for Aussie athletes with Ally Hickman picking up a slopestyle bronze medal as the youngest athlete in the field, while also gaining a top ten result in big air. Josh Robertson-Hahn scored the best result of the males with a top 10 in big air.

Hickman went on to score two top 10s at the Gangwon Youth Winter Olympic Games. There were also strong snowboard park and pipe performances from Halle McRae (11th big air), Milo Botterill (big air 18th20th), Tai Vaughan (14th halfpipe), Amelie Haskell (11th halfpipe) and Sascha Elvy (12th halfpipe). 

The season rounded out with the 2024 Junior World Championships in Livigno, Italy. James Garth scored Australia’s best result after qualifying for the slopestyle final and finishing in 11th.

Freeski Park & Pipe

The highlight of the freeski park and pipe season came from Daisy Thomas. After standing on the Europa Cup podium last season, Thomas went on to score two top 10s at the Junior World Championships in New Zealand and finish seventh on World Cup debut at Cooper Mountain.

She then represented Australia at the Youth Winter Olympic Games where she finished fifth in slopestyle then upgraded to a silver medal in big air.

Joey Elliss also scored a fifth place finish in the men’s slopestyle final in Gangwon while Lucinda Laird (big air 15th) also had the opportunity to pull on the green and gold.

Abi Harrigan won her first-ever Europa Cup event in slopestyle at La Clusaz in France, going on to finish third at the Davos big air in Switzerland 10 days later. She finished the season in 12th on the overall Europa Cup standings, and 17th in the World Cup. 

Kai Martin started his season with slopestyle gold at the Australia New Zealand Cup in his first event competing for Australia, before making his World Cup Debut at Chur, Switzerland.

We are in the midst of wrapping up the the international season, with snapshots of Para Alpine/Para Snowboard, Alpine/Ski Cross, Aerials & Moguls, Snowboard Cross & Alpine Snowboard and Cross Country/Ski Mountaineering all being published to snow.org.au in the lead-in to the 2024 Snow Australia Awards.