Ski Freestyle – Freeskiers Mathilde Greymud and Andrey Raggetli overcame difficult conditions at Aspen and won their first World Championship medal. Gremud won silver at Slopestyle, Raggettly became the world winner.
From a Swiss point of view, cloud cover at Aspen opened a crack at the right time on Saturday. With a slight sun on his back and a slightly better visibility, Andrée Ragettley from Grubandon arrived at Aspen for the third and final World Cup gold medal at Sloppy – and was rewarded by the jury for his courage. Despite the still difficult wind conditions, the 22-year-old from Grubanden tried to run an extremely demanding technically, made it through the course without a mistake and gained an edge with 90.65 points.
Only Alexander Hall, the best in qualification, could capture Raggettly. The 22-year-old American, whose parents taught at the University of Zurich, lagged behind the Swiss with 86.01 points and had to settle for bronze. Went to Colby Stevenson, compatriot of Silver Hall. The second Swiss, who qualified for the finals, was ranked 5th by Kim Gubasar.
For Ragatley, who delivered top results at the World Cup with impressive regularity and made it to the podium 20 times, starting 39, ultimately working on a big event. He finished seventh at the Olympic Games in PyeongChang, after injuring him for the last world championship in Park City two years ago. “It’s a big day for me,” Ragettley said.
Mathilde Gremud also won the first World Cup medal in the women’s section, but she was less fortunate than Ragetley. In the end, a safety-conscious run for silver was enough, for a 21-year-old Friborg woman behind Chinese Aileen Gu, who had already won gold in the Half on Friday. While 17-year-old world champion Gujarat took advantage of good conditions in their first attempt, Grimaud faced wind and fog in each of his runs.
The fact that he brought his second attempt on the course at a safe temperature is a testament to the experience that the PyeongChang Olympic runner-up already has. After a training accident, Gremud’s teammate and Olympic champion Sarah Hofflin also did not begin to qualify. Like Gremud, the 30-year-old from Geneva will likely return to qualification for the Big Air Finals on Monday.
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