N.H. gets a taste of World Cup
Freestylers ready to show their stuff
Decades after holding the first freestyle skiing event in the United States, Waterville Valley is once again set to host the best mogul skiers in the world.
The inaugural edition of the Waterville Freestyle Cup, an official FIS World Cup event, gets underway Friday and continues with a dual moguls competition Saturday. It’s expected that 139 athletes from 19 countries will make the journey to the New Hampshire ski area.
First announced a year ago, the competition represents a return to one of mogul skiing’s original settings. Yet despite its longstanding ties — claiming to be “The Birthplace of Freestyle Skiing” — Waterville Valley’s only previous experience hosting the World Cup was an alpine event in 1991. With a new two-year partnership with FIS, the New England resort finally will have its chance to showcase the local passion for moguls.
“It places us on the world stage and says that we are a world-class resort,” said Waterville Valley general manager Tim Smith. Smith and his staff are no strangers to hosting moguls competitions (US nationals have been there multiple times in the last decade), but he knows the World Cup is a step up.
Fortunately, winter conditions have been favorable, with Smith noting that they’ve been able to make “an amazing amount of snow.”
New England native Hannah Kearney, who won Olympic gold in moguls at the 2010 Vancouver Games, grew up skiing at Waterville Valley. Kearney, who retired from competition in 2015, will be a commentator for NBC Sports’s coverage (which will be streamed on multiple platforms, including Outside and Peacock). She expressed confidence that the ski area has built a course worthy of the best in the world.
“There’s a ton of knowledge and experience, and that makes a better course, which in turn leads to better skiing,” Kearney said.
Competitions are scored by a panel of judges based on multiple factors, including speed, quality of turns, and aerials. The course will be on Lower Bobby’s Run (a double black diamond on the trail map) and is 246 meters long (807 feet). It will be a demanding run even for veteran competitors, reaching a maximum slope of 32 degrees.
“The main section is about twothirds of the entire course,” Smith explained. “That’s where the big bumps are. That’s when, if you’re watching on TV, you see the skiers’ knees hitting their chests.”
The course contains two jumps, where skiers can show off their aerial ability. Judges will evaluate each contestant’s aerials based on form and degree of difficulty.
Friday will feature traditional moguls. The second day of competition will showcase dual moguls, in which two skiers compete simultaneously.
From a US perspective, Kearney said that the women’s team is the “most successful they’ve been in a long time right now.”
Standout competitors for the United States include 2022 Olympic silver medalist Jaelin Kauf, who Kearney said is “known for her speed.”
“Olivia Giaccio has really excellent jumps,” Kearney added. “Olivia and Kasey Hogg, another young American, both threw off-axis 1080s — so that means three rotations, which is comparable to exactly what the men are doing — off the bottom jump just last weekend.”
Kauf finished second at the preceding event, held at Val Saint-Côme in Canada. Four other American skiers were in the top 10, though the competition was once again won by Jakara Anthony. The 25-year-old Australian has been dominant recently, having won five World Cup events in a row (and seven of the eight this season).
Giaccio, who grew up in Connecticut and learned to ski at Killington in Vermont, has experience with the moguls at Waterville Valley at previous editions of US Nationals.
“I know there’s a really large mogul skiing community, not just in Waterville but on the East Coast generally that will be really excited about this event,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll have some good spectators. It should be fun.”
For the men’s competition, Kearney noted that it would be more of an upset for a US skier to win.
“Nick Page and Cole McDonald are the two most veteran men on the team that have competed at national championships there,” she said. “The men’s side internationally is so strong, and it’s ultra competitive. [The United States] has only had two podiums this year, both coming from Nick Page. But the home-snow advantage is real, and I would expect a couple American men to be in the finals.”
Looking at the bigger picture, Kearney is upbeat about Waterville Valley capitalizing on its moment in the spotlight.
“I knew that they could potentially host a great World Cup,” she said. “Watching Killington get to host the alpine World Cup around Thanksgiving each year, that’s made me actually really crave an opportunity for Waterville to host.
“We’ve seen the outpouring of support that New England ski enthusiasts bring to an event, and I hope Waterville gets to experience the same because it’s so cool, and it makes me proud to be from the area.”