Big Air Chur 2024 This Weekend

The Big Air Chur freestyle festival in Switzerland will be opening the FIS World Cup season for the fourth time in a row this coming weekend.

On 18-19 October 2024, international freeski and snowboard pros will wow the crowds with their tricks as they jump the ramp, while popular bands move you to bust your own moves on the live stage before, between and after the sporting performances.

“It's the combination that’s so electric and eclectic! Freestyle sport AND music is Big Air Chur. There’s nothing else like it,” an event spokesperson said.

Olympic champions, world champions, X-Games winners, overall World Cup winners—the crème de la crème of freeskiing and snowboarding fill the entry list for the first Big Air World Cup.

With a total of five competitions this season, everyone wants to shine right at the start edition. It goes without saying that women and men receive the same prize money and jump the same kicker at Big Air Chur.

What will the freeskiers show on Friday, 18 October?

First the high-flyer and Big Air Chur title defender Mathilde Gremaud, who was the first woman ever to win three freeski crystal globes in March 2024 will be competing, as will serial winner Andri Ragettli, aiming to achieve his first podium finish in his home town in front of headliner Bonez MC?

 Both Swiss-Ski riders will face a tough challenge from competitors travelling from all over the world including Frenchwoman Tess Ledeux—Big Air Chur Champion 2021 and 2022— who is always a force to be reckoned with, as are Olympic champion Birk Ruud from Norway, and 2023-24 discipline winner Alex Hall, Alaskan with Swiss roots, and Chur premiere winner, Matej Svancer from neighbouring Austria.

Snowboarder Anna Gasser also hails from Austria and a two-time Olympic champion in Big Air, has twice stood on the podium in Chur and is considered a favourite for Saturday 19 October alongside UK teenager Mia Brookes and the lively Japanese riders Kokomo Murase and Reira Iwabuchi.

If Swiss snowboard rider Nicolas Huber, who owns 2 World Championship bronze medals in Big Air and performs hip social media gigs as Hubercop, makes it to the final in the men's competition, anything is possible. Even against the strong Japanese like Taiga Hasegawa or Hiroto Ogiwara, contest winner in 2023. But there is another local determined to go all the way: Valentino Guseli (pictured top), Australian snowboarder from Laax and Chur and FIS overall winner of the Park and Pipe ranking in the 2022-23 season.

All must descend from the top as part of the 160 freestyle athletes from over 25 countries whoa re competing. The view from the 40-metre-high starting tower is gigantic—and when the speaker announces the next rider, when the crowd in the festival area below cheers, it's a singular adrenaline rush spurring the riders on to give their best performance: via the inrun, over the kicker, through the air and into the landing.