MCMORRIS LOOKING FOR FIRST HOME-SOIL WIN SINCE 2017
While he never stays off the top of the podium for long, it has been a hot minute since Canada’s Mark McMorris took a win on home soil, with his last major victory in Canada coming back in February of 2017 at the Quebec City big air World Cup.
This weekend the 28-year-old will be looking to change that in big way when he leads the host contingent into competition on a Edmonton Style Experience big air jump that should play very much to his strengths as one of the absolute best all-around snowboarders ever.
While McMorris’ countryman and friendly rival Max Parrot will be sitting out this week’s action, with Nicholas Laframboise and young guns like Truth Smith, Finn Finestone, Cameron Spaulding and Jacob Lagault all suiting up, the Canadians have a young and exciting team looking to make some noise this weekend.
That being said, there are some serious heavyweights from around the world looking for their piece of the Edmonton podium.
Looming largest on the start list is Marcus Kleveland of Norway, one of the few riders on earth who can go toe-to-toe with McMorris in pure technical wizardry. Though Kleveland had something of a down year last season, he still took the W at the season finale Silvaplana slopestyle, and it was only back in 2020/21 that he earned Aspen 2021 World Championships slopestyle gold as well as the slopestyle and Park & Pipe overall crystal globes. Look for the 23-year-old to start the season off strong here in Edmonton.
As with the women, the Japanese men’s team is one of the strongest top-to-bottom here in Edmonton, with Takeru Otsuka leading the way after claiming the win at the Big Air Chur in October. Along with Chur second-place finisher Ruka Tobita, Hiroaki Kunitake, Taiga Hasegawa and a handful of others, the Japanese team is looking fierce.
With the likes of Chris Corning and Sean Fitzsimons suiting up the US starting lineup has some exceptional talent, and riders like Leon Vockensperger (GER), Valentino Guseli (AUS), Jakub Hrones (CZE), Jonas Boesiger (SUI) and Emiliano Lauzi (ITA) all on hand, there’s a whole lot of international firepower set to show their stuff over the next two days of action.
WHERE TO WATCH LIVE
YouTube livestream WOMEN (with restrictions), YouTube livestream MEN (with restrictions), skiandsnowboard.live (USA), Eurosport Discovery, CT Sport (CZE), Viaplay (DEN), TV3 Sport (EST/LAT/LIT), V Sport + (FIN/NOR), YLE Areena (FIN), L’Equipe (FRA), JSPORTS 3 (JPN), ESPN Latin America, Polsat Sport (POL), JOJ Sport (SVK), Viaplay (GBR), CBC (CAN)
QUICK LINKS
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