5 Skiers Didn't Get To Compete at The Freeride World Championships, Here's Why
The inaugural Freeride World Championships took place earlier this week and brought together the best freeride skiers and snowboarders from 17 countries to compete for the title of World Champion.
The day started with a weather delay due to poor visibility and clouds that caused a significant delay to the competition's start. Once things cleared, the first category, Snowboard Men, ran without delay. Snowboard Women and Ski Men followed up.
Ski Women was the last category of the day to drop in, with Elisabet Marina of Spain first in the lineup.
Marina was followed by Lena Kohler, Zanna Farrell, Jenna Keller, Chisato Sasada, Justine Dufour-Lapointe, Molly Armanino, Ulla Gilot, Zuzanna Witych, and Elly Olsson. By this point in the competition, Witych was sitting in first place with a score of 80.33, Dufour-Lapointe in second with a 76.33, and Armanino in third with 74.00 points.
Kiwi skier and 2022 FWT Overall Champion Jess Hotter dropped in after Olsson with a fast and powerful run that easily could have upset the podium. Hotter hucked a massive backflip off the windlip near the bottom of the course, but slightly over-rotated it and tumbled in the landing.
Unfortunately, Hotter sustained a knee injury, which she later reported on social media. (We're sending you all the healing, Jess!) The competition was put on hold as Hotter was evacuated from the course via helicopter.
Keep reading for how things played out at the 2026 Freeride World Championships.
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Agostina Vietti (ARG), who won the previous FWT stop in Val Thorens, was slated to drop in following Hotter. Behind Vietti were Lily Bradley (USA), Manon Loschi (FRA), Astrid Cheylus (FRA), and Wynter McBride (USA). During the delay, clouds began to roll into the venue, and the competition was officially put on hold.
After more than an hour's delay, the Contest Director made the call to enact the 2/3 rule and validate the competition, meaning that Vietti, Bradley, Loschi, Cheylus, and McBride were unable to take competition runs.
The following message was posted to the Freeride World Tour Instagram account:
"The Ski Women category at the FIS Freeride World Championships was stopped due to a lack of visibility following a decision by the contest director, prioritizing athlete safety.
At the time of interruption, 11 of the 16 competitors had completed their runs, meeting the two-thirds threshold required under FIS Freeride Competition Rules. The results of the Ski Women category have therefore been validated.
Zuzanna Witych (POL) has been crowned FIS Freeride World Champion in the Ski Women category. All other categories at the FIS Freeride World Championships were completed as scheduled."
JBERNARD, FIS WoFreeride World Championships podium
The FIS Freeride World Championship Rulebook states the following in section 3.5:
"If a competition is stopped by decision of the Contest Director (after consultation with the Commissioner and Head of Security), results of a category may be validated if at least two-thirds (66.7%) of the competitors in said category have started. If conditions and budget allow, FIS FWT may decide to reschedule or rerun the categories concerned. In case of a rerun, previous results will not be considered. In case of a serious accident, FIS FWT may decide or not to validate the competition results even if 2/3rd of the competitors have started. In case of an event’s results validated with only two-thirds of the field, remaining competitors will be assigned a DNS score."
As expected, the five riders who were not able to complete competition runs were disappointed and several posted to their own social media pages to voice their frustration.
"Definitely mega bummed that I couldn't even try to show what I had in store today. But super stoked for the homies who killed it," said Manon Loschi.
"After hours and hours waiting, no run for us. Srry you will never see our mega line that we chose with @manon_loschi," said Astrid Cheylus' post.
Despite Loschi and Cheylus not being able to ride, France was still awarded the top Nation Ranking of the event, with high-scoring runs from Noémie Equy and Victor de la Rue in the snowboard categories and Oscar Mandin and Ugo Troubat, who came in 4th and 2nd place, respectively, in Ski Men's.
It's tough not to feel like Ski Women already got the short end of the stick as the last category to drop, especially with five athletes unable to compete.
As Loschi said in her post, "I will always think that freeskiing and rules are two things that aren't really going well together. But I guess that when you accept to play the game, you also gotta accept the rules and consequences."