Laax Open 2022: Gateway to Olympia
The Laax Open is Europe's most important snowboard event: Since 2005, the January OPEN event in LAAX, Switzerland, has been a living freestyle lifestyle, melding contest with culture. Since 2017, it has been part of the FIS Snowboard World Cup circuit and is considered by numerous riders and teams there as the top favourite event. The Open also plays an outstanding role in the media and sets specific standards in reporting.
via Laax
Premiere: Finals in Slopestyle and Halfpipe on Saturday, January 15, 2022
The LAAX OPEN 2022 has a decisive role to play: it is the very last chance for freestyle snowboarders to qualify for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. Travelling from all over the world, it is for some to punch their Olympic ticket with a brilliant performance at Crap Sogn Gion and for others who already have their ticket to Beijing but are after the LAAX OPEN podium and the lion’s share of the CHF 140,000 prize money.
The result of this is a premiere: World Cup decisions in two disciplines are scheduled on one and the same day in LAAX, namely Saturday, 15 January 2022: slopestyle at midday, followed by the halfpipe finals in the evening.
What a World Cup line-up: 180 riders from 32 countries
The end of the entry period makes one thing clear: The starting places for the LAAX OPEN 2022 are fully booked! 32 national federations from all five continents have registered 180 riders in the women's and men's slopestyle and halfpipe disciplines.
Top names, such as golden Olympians Anna Gasser (AUT), Chloe Kim, Jamie Anderson, Red Gerard and Shaun White (all USA) stud the charts, as well as those of the new freestyle generation, Zoi Sadowski Synott (NZL), Valentino Guseli (AUS) and Leon Vockensperger (GER). Likewise entered for the prestigious 2022 event are OPEN Champions Yuto Totsuka (2021, JAP), Scotty James (2019 & 2020, AUS), Queralt Castellet (2020, SPA), Julia Marino (2020, USA), Jiayu Liu (2019, CHN), Max Parrot (2017, CAN), Chase Josey (2017, USA), Mark McMorris (2016, CAN) and Stale Sandbech (2015, NOR).
In parallel with other nations, the formidable teams from Japan and Switzerland are using the LAAX OPEN 2022 as an opportunity to determine their favourites for the 2022 Olympics. Big Air Chur World Cup Opening winners Kokomo Murase (JAP) and Jonas Bösiger (SUI) were already in winning form at the end of October and planning to compete in the LAAX slopestyle. Naturally, the Swiss crowd favourites Jan Scherrer and Pat Burgener want to make it to the Halfpipe Night Finals once again and thrill us in the 200 metre long superpipe.
Live on Air
The LAAX OPEN 2022 finals will be broadcasted on Swiss TV SRF and on a world-wide livestream on eurovisionsports.tv and laax.com. Red Bull TV will show the finals semi-live and on VOD.
More information: www.laax.com/open