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≡ FREESTYLE & SNOWBOARD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡
The FIS Freestyle & Snowboard World Championships wrapped up in Engadin (SUI), with Japan topping the medal table with 17 (4-8-5), while the U.S. had 12 (4-4-4). Host Switzerland won nine medals and had the most golds with five (5-1-3).
To show the wild swings in these sports at the championship level, the 2023 Worlds had Austria with 13 medals and the Swiss with 10, with no nation scoring more than three golds. In 2021, Russia led with 14 total medals and six golds, followed by Canada with 11 (4-5-2).
The 12 U.S. medals is the most in a combined Worlds since 2019 – at home in Utah – when the Americans scored 14 total medals (5-3-6). Americans won 13 medals at the 2017 Worlds in Spain.
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The Freestyle Big Air final saw two first-time Worlds medal winners in the event, with New Zealand’s Luca Harrington – the seasonal World Cup winner – taking the gold at 192.00, scoring 96.75 and 95.25 in his last two runs. Finland’s Elias Syrja, who didn’t win a World Cup medal this season, won silver at 184.25, with Birk Ruud – third in 2023 – taking bronze again at 183.00.
Americans Mac Forehand, defending champ Troy Podmilsak and Alex Hall finished 4-5-6 at 182.00, 177.25 and 174.25.
The women had three new Worlds medal winners, with seasonal World Cup champ Flora Tabanelli (age 17) winning the gold at 176.75, ahead of 2018 Olympic Slopestyle winner Sarah Hoefflin (SUI: 170.75) and another Finnish medalist, Anni Karava (167.75).
In the Aerials finals, defending champion Noe Roth (SUI) won the men’s final with a spectacular performance that scored 143.31 points, ahead of American Quinn Dehlinger (123.53) and fellow Swiss Pirmin Werner (107.12). Chris Lillis of the U.S. was seventh and Connor Curran was 12th.
It was a repeat of the 2023 Worlds, with Roth ahead of Dehlinger once again
The women’s Aerials final was the fourth-ever win by an American, with Kalia Kuhn taking her second gold of the Worlds – also in the Team Aerials with Dehlinger and Lillis – scoring 105.13 to beat 2022 Olympic champ Mengtao Xu (CHN: 99.16) and Australia’s two-time silver winner Danielle Scott (AUS: 96.93). Dani Loeb of the U.S. was 11th. Kuhn was the first U.S. winner since Ashley Caldwell in 2017.
The Halfpipe finals saw New Zealand’s 18-year-old Finley Melville Ives, who won one World Cup medal this season, take the Worlds gold, scoring 96.00, over Americans Nick Goepper (94.00) and Alex Ferreira (92.50). Goepper, a two-time Worlds bronze medalist in Slopestyle, won his first Halfpipe medal and Ferreira won his second straight bronze in the event.
Hunter Hess of the U.S. was fifth (89.75) and two-time Olympic champ David Wise was 11th (74.25).
Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin moved up from silver in 2023 to gold in 2025, scoring 93.50 on her second run to win over Fanghui Li (CHN: 93.00) and 2018 Olympic champ Cassie Sharpe (CAN: 88.00). Svea Irving was the top American, in fifth (83.25) and Katie Gray was 10th (52.25).
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In Snowboard, the SnowCross final had 2022 Canadian Olympic runner-up Eliot Grondin taking his first Worlds gold, ahead of Loan Bozzolo (FRA) and 2022 Olympic winner Alessandro Hammerle (AUT) in the men’s final, while Italy’s 2018 Olympic champ Michela Moioli (ITA) won her fifth Worlds medal and first gold in the women’s final. She got to the line ahead of 2021 World Champion Charlotte Bankes and France’s Julia Pereira de Souza Mabileau.
In the Team SnowCross, Bozzolo and Mabileau took the title, ahead of Cameron Bolton and Mia Clift (AUS).
Japan nearly swept all the medals in the Big Air events, with 2023 Slopestyle runner-up Ryoma Kimata winning at 176.75, barely ahead of teammate and defending champ Taiga Hasegawa (173.50) and American Oliver Martin (171.75), who won his second bronze of the championships (also in Slopestyle).
It was a Japanese sweep in the women’s Big Air, as Kokomo Murase, the Beijing 2022 bronze winner, took the title at 162.50, beating Reira Iwabuchi (156.00) and Mari Fukada (153.25).
The Halfpipe finals had familiar winners, with a fourth Worlds gold for Scotty James (AUS: 95.00), beating Ruka Hirano (JPN: 92.25) and teammate and 2021 World Champion Yuto Totsuka (92.00). Americans Lucas Foster, Alessandro Barbieri, Chase Josey and Jason Wolfe finished 8-9-12-16.
American star (and two-time Worlds winner) Chloe Kim scored 93.50 on her first run and that was enough for the victory and her third Worlds gold, previously in 2019 and 2021. Sara Shimizu (JPN: was second at 90.75 for her first Worlds medal, and 2023 bronze winner Mitsuki Ono (JPN: 88.50) was third again. Americans Maddie Mastro (81.00) and Madeline Schaffrick (66.00) finished 6-11.
Kim will be looking for a third Olympic gold next year in Milan Cortina.
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