Halfpipe is the oldest snowboarding competition. In 1988, in Stratton, USA, the US OPEN was already held under the sponsorship of Burton.
Snowboarding became the first official Olympic event in 1998 in Nagano. Halfpipe has been done since then. It has the longest history as a snowboarding event.
At X Games, a popular competition in the United States, it is called “SuperPipe” instead of “halfpipe”, despite that it is almost the same competition.
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Overview
The size of the course is about 260 meters long and 21 meters wide. The slope of the halfpipe course is 18 degrees. However, the size will change depending on the snow conditions.
A scoring competition in which jumps are made on the left and right walls (height 7 meters).
Compete for the height of the air (jump), the perfection of the technique, and the difficulty level.
In the qualifying, two runs will be made and the highest score will be adopted.
In the final, 12 riders will ride 3 times and the highest score will be used.
There are 6 judges, and the maximum score of one judge is 100 points.
The scores of the judges that gives the highest amount of points, and the judge that gives the lowest amount of points are excluded. The average score is then taken by the four judges remaining to determine the final score.
What is being contested is the difficulty of the technique and how challenging the trick is. In addition, the degree of perfection of the technique is also evaluated, such as the posture in the air and whether the grab was done firmly.
If they fall, they will get a big deduction. In many cases, a fallen run will not give good results.
Other factors being evaluated…
Air Height
A high jump will excite the audience and at the same time receive high praise from the judges.
In order to make a high jump, the athlete needs to have a high level of riding skill in the pipe.
Stability and control
Points will be deducted if you put your hands down on the landing. If you fall further, you will be deducted by a lot and chances are low that you will be able to place.
The aerial posture also needs to be calm and required to be controlled.
Variety
It is also judged whether or not the snowboarder is performing various different tricks to show off all skill sets, the more variety there is, the more impressive it is.
Various types of spin tricks are also required, such as frontside spin, backside spin tricks, 3D tricks such as vertical rotation, and tricks performed by approaching from a switch.
※Switch means riding in the opposite stance to the original rider’s stance (regular or goofy).
Venue: Genting Ski Resort（雲頂滑雪度假村）
The Genting Snow Park（云顶滑雪公园）, located in the east of Chongli County of Zhangjiakou（张家口）, is four kilometers away from the Olympic Village.
It is located in Hebei. For skiing and snowboarding, there are 16 km of slopes and 1.3 km of ski routes available. 5 lifts transport the guests. The winter sports area is situated between the elevations of 1,702 and 2,100m.
The Genting Snow Park A and B will be the venues for Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard competitions. Each of them have a capacity of 7,500 spectators, with 5,000 fixed seats.
Schedule: Feb 9-11
Wednesday, February 9
Halfpipe: Women’s / Men’s Qualification
Thursday, February 10
Women’s Halfpipe Finals
Friday, February 11
Men’s Halfpipe Finals
For more details, please follow the link below
https://medias2.fis-ski.com/pdf/2022/SB/6072/2022SB6072PROG.pdf
Featured Riders
Introducing the Featured Riders who are likely to play an active part in the Beijing Olympics.
Shaun White
Date Of Birth: September 3, 1986
Nationality: United States
@shaunwhite
2021 Cup Standings: 12th
Stance: Regular
Shaun White is the most famous professional snowboarder. Perhaps he is a talented person in 100 years. He has earned a lot of money as a professional and is overwhelming.
White is the owner of several ski resorts and the owner of Air + Style, a well-known event in the snowboarding world.
He a superstar in this world.
He started snowboarding at the age of 6 due to his brother’s influence.
He has participated in snowboarding competitions since he was a boy and has been successful and sponsored by Burton.
His parents spent a lot of time driving a car to get them into the competition. Thanks to that, he joined the ranks of top professionals when he was young.
However, top snowboard pros at the time seemed to think that White’s rapid rise was unpleasant.
When he came to Tokyo Dome, he was offered to share the winning prize by the participating players. However, he refused, and he devoted himself to the competition and won the championship.
White has visited Japan several times.
When he was young, he was looking forward to buying a comic book, Vagabond, and having a Japanese snack, Curl.
The spirit that he did not succumb to older professional snowboarders when he was young may be because he imitated the way of life of Miyamoto Musashi, the main character of Vagabond.
White was already known in the snowboarding world, but generally became famous in the world after winning the gold medal at the 2006 Torino Olympics.
At that time, he had long red hair, so he was nicknamed Flying Tomato.
In 2010, he won the gold medal at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and became a world-renowned professional snowboarder.
For White, the Sochi Olympics were an unlucky games.
He canceled his planned slopestyle participation just before the competition. He saw the course and thought it was dangerous and seemed to avoid it.
In the halfpipe, he finished in 4th place because he couldn’t perform well due to unfamiliar soft snow conditions.
As a result, this regret leads to PyeongChang.
White had his hands full against some of the younger competition at the PyeongChang Games. He faced a formidable obstacle in the halfpipe final, when Japan’s Ayumu Hirano landed back-to-back double cork 1440s to surge to the top spot with a 95.25 score. However, White responded on his final run by landing his own back-to-back 1440s, earning a score of 97.75 that gave him the win and also marked the 100th overall gold for Team USA in the Winter Olympics competition.
Scotty James
Date Of Birth: June 7, 1994
Nationality: Australia
@scottyjames31
2021 Cup Standings: 4th
Stance: Regular
Scotty James participated in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics when he was 15 years old.
Perhaps that experience was a big part of his later snowboarding life.
James became overwhelmingly strong after winning the bronze medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
At that time, it was Shaun White(USA) who won the gold medal and Ayumu Hirano(JPN) who won the silver medal.
However, they disappeared from the World Cup stage in order to aim for the Tokyo Olympics in the summer.
And James becomes even stronger, especially from 2018 to 2020, becoming king.
He won the 2018 U.S. Grand Prix, the 2019 LAAX OPEN, the 2019 X Games, and even the 2020 LAAX OPEN.
James started snowboarding at the age of two and soon fell in love with the sport.
Then by 13 was traversing the globe, claiming victory on the junior world tour, and standing atop the podium at both the US and European Opens.
Many of the athletes who are active in snowboarding freestyle are small. However, James is 190 centimeters tall.
The tricks that come from being tall look very dynamic. He is a very popular professional snowboarder in the world.
Previously I told him that James from 2018 was the King, but there was a rider under the King who was always in second place.
His name is Yuto Totsuka.
Totsuka has become James’ biggest rival, starting with the 2020 US OPEN victory.
Yuto Totsuka
Date Of Birth: September 27, 2001
Nationality: Japan
@yuto_totsuka
2021 Cup Standings: 1st
Stance: Regular
Yuto Totsuka made his debut and won the World Cup in New Zealand on September 8, 2017.
He was only 15 at that time. He quickly became the rising star of the world cup. On the podium in New Zealand, there was also Ayumu Hirano, a rider whom Totsuka admires.
After this, Totsuka’s march continues.
And he was able to stand on the big stage of the Pyeongchang Olympics.
Totsuka started snowboarding at the age of three due to his parents’ influence, and was already riding on a halfpipe when he was in third grade.
He practiced halfpipe hard and earned a snowboarding professional qualification in Japan when he was in fifth grade.
Totsuka won the All Japan Halfpipe Championship in the 2016/17 season, in which former world champion Ryo Aono and Sochi Olympic bronze medalist Taku Hiraoka also participated. As a result, he was in the limelight.
At the Pyeongchang Olympics, he unfortunately fell in the second run of the final and smashed his body. He couldn’t move and was sent off on his stretcher.
After recovering from the injury, Totsuka became even stronger. He is 2nd in the 2019 X Games Aspen and 2nd in the 2019 World Championships.
The tables turned at the 2020 U.S. Open. Tostuka showed off the frontside double cork 1440, Cab double cork 1260 and switch backside double cork 1080. Finally he won in front of his rival Scotty James.
Since then, he has become an invincible Mario.
Ayumu Hirano
Date Of Birth: November 29, 1998
Nationality: Japan
@ayumuhirano1129
2021 Cup Standings: —
Stance: Goofy
The world knows Ayumu Hirano as a Snowboard SuperPipe powerhouse, with 2 gold and 1 silver at X Games and 2 Olympic silver medals. But he’s also a strong skateboarder and has been skating for as long as he’s been snowboarding. He was born for it: his father owns the Murakami Skatepark in their hometown. News of skateboarding coming to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics stirred his competitive urge, and he won the 2019 Japanese National Championship, his first major skate contest.
After the Pyeongchang Olympic season, he decided to leave snowboarding to compete in the Tokyo Olympic skating event. He succeeded in deciding to participate in the Olympics.
At the Tokyo Olympics held on August 5, 2021 in the heat of the heat, he finished 14th.
It was a pity that he couldn’t make it to the final, but his summer and winter Olympic challenges were respected by many.
He finally made a comeback on the snow in the 2020-21 season.
However, due to the small number of competition he has participated in, he has not yet been qualified to participate in the Beijing Olympics. He will probably charge at the first World Cup of the 2021-22 season.
Chloe Kim
Date Of Birth: April 3, 2000
Nationality: United States
@chloekim
2021 Cup Standings: 1st
Stance: Goofy
The American can already claim to be the greatest female snowboarder of all time, and given she started so young, she could conceivably compete at another three Olympic Winter Games before she is finished.
Chloe Kim was born in Long Beach, California, and raised in nearby Torrance. Her parents are from South Korea. Kim’s father quit his job to drive her to the mountains and also to be able to travel with her when she competes. He started her on a snowboard at age four at the southern California resort of Mountain High; she started competing at age six as a member of Team Mountain High. She chose homeschooling instead of going to school.
Kim first burst into the public consciousness aged just 14; at the 2015 X Games, she was the youngest ever winner of a gold medal, taking the prize in the superpipe ahead of Kelly Clark. The records continued to tumble – she won X Games gold again the next year, and in the US Snowboarding Grand Prix, she became the first female boarder to land back-to-back 1080s.
Kim was too young to compete at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games – an event she was already talented enough to win a medal at – and therefore her first taste of Olympic action came at the Lillehammer 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games.
The stage was set for PyeongChang 2018. Kim was, for many, the face of the Games. A fluent Korean speaker whose parents were first generation South Korean immigrants to the US, Kim appealed to home and overseas fans alike. She won gold in the halfpipe, with a remarkable score of 98.25 points, ten points ahead of her nearest rival. It made Kim a household name around the world, and the youngest halfpipe gold medalist. She has since been on the front of the Corn Flakes packet, been made into a Barbie doll, and starred in several films and music videos.
Kim, who has taken a season off, was admitted to Princeton University. She will begin studying science in 2023. First, however, she will defend her Olympic title. “I don’t want anyone to think I’m about to retire or anything like that. I just need some Chloe time,” she said about her break from snowboarding. “I’ve been competing at a pro level since I was 12. I wanted to kind of explore life outside of that scene for a year. I want to be in good health for the next Olympics as well as for the rest of my life, so I think this was a good decision.”
2021 Kim is back in the World Cup. She won gold medals at all World Cup, X Games and World Championships.
OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES 2022 ALLOCATION LIST SNOWBOARD HALFPIPE
Number of participants in the Beijing Olympics: 25 men’s, 25 women’s, 1 of whom will be held in their own country.
The maximum number of participants in a country is four for both men and women.
In the case of Snowboard Halfpipe, only the athlete’s best five Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup results from 1 July 2019 – 16 January 2022 will be used for calculation, in addition to the athlete’s ranking points obtained in the Snowboard Halfpipe event at the FIS Snowboard World Championships 2021.
Men
- Yuto Tostuka (JPN) 560pt
- Scotty James (AUS) 540pt
- Ruka Hirano (JPN) 362pt
- Andre Hoeflich (GER) 281pt
- Jan Scherrer (SUI) 277pt
- Taylor Gold (USA) 277pt
- David Habluetzel (SUI) 253pt
- Chase Blackwell (USA) 228pt
- Patrick Burgner (SUI) 193pt
- Chase Josey (USA) 178pt
For more details, please follow the link below
https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/v2/quota/allocation/owg/sb/2022?gender=M&event=HP&page=1
Women
- Queralt Castellet (ESP) 425pt
- Xuetong Cai (CHN) 400pt
- Maddie Mastro (USA) 362pt
- Jiayu Liu (CHN) 360pt
- Mitsuki Ono (JPN) 314pt
- Chloe Kim (USA) 300pt
- Haruna Matsumoto (JPN) 243pt
- Kurumi Imai (JPN) 238pt
- Sena Tomita (JPN) 231pt
- Leilani Ettel (GER) 176pt
For more details, please follow the link below
https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/v2/quota/allocation/owg/sb/2022?gender=W&event=HP&page=1
