Bakuriani; US Wins Aerials Team Event, Tsubaki Miki & Oskar Kwiatkowski Take PGS Golds

The first Freestyle medal event at the Bakuriani 2023 FIS Freestyle, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships went down in epic fashion on Saturday, with Ashley Caldwell, Chris Lillis and Quinn Dehlinger of the USA claiming aerials mixed team World Championships gold, followed by China with silver and Ukraine taking home the bronze.

After a couple of tough days of training due to strong winds at the aerials site at Bakuriani’s Kokhta venue, Mother Nature was finally on the athletes side on Sunday, and the calmer conditions allowed the best three skiers from each nation in the finals to put on explosive show for the packed Georgian crowd on hand.

Team USA was on fire all day long, leading the way in both rounds of the finals and winning the competition with a final combined score of 331.37 points.

In the superfinal Caldwell put down a solid back Full double Full, while Lillis, who jumped second, came through with a near-perfect double Full-Full-Full, putting USA in the lead with just one more round of jumps reaming in the competition.

Last but not least for the U.S. squad was Quinn Dehlinger, who was fresh off his first ever World Cup win a couple of weeks ago back in Canada. On Sunday Dehlinger managed to put his double Full-Full-Full down to his feet under enormous pressure, consequently sealing the deal for the US team for their first world championships aerials team gold medal.

Second place on the day went to the Chinese team on account of great jumping from Kong Fanyu, Li Tianma and Yang Longxiao, who finished the competition just back of the USA with 320.71 points to snag the silver medal. It was the second runner-up position for China since the aerials team event was added into the World Championship programme in 2017.

Rounding out the podium in third place was Ukraine, with Anastasiya Novosad, Oleksandr Okipnuk and Dmytro Kotovskyi all putting down some exceptional runs on Sunday. However, with Novosad lead the team into second spot after the first round of the superfinal, neither Okipniu nor Kotovskyi were able to land their jumps cleanly, and at the end of the day the Ukrainian team had to settle for the the bronze medal.

Kazakhstan finished the competition in fourth, with Canada following in fifth place.

History makers Tsubaki Miki of Japan and Poland’s Oskar Kwiatkowski are parallel giant slalom world champions after a dramatic first day at the 2023 FIS Freestyle Ski, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships in Bakuriani, Georgia on Sunday (19 February).

Both claimed alpine snowboard world gold for the first time ever for their nations with Miki beating Olympic silver medallist, Daniela Ulbing of Austria in the big final, while Kwiatkowski overcame Switzerland’s two-time World Cup winner, Dario Caviezel to take the win in the men’s edition.

In the small finals, Aleksandra Krol (POL) beat Lucia Dalmasso (ITA) to the final podium spot, after both made mistakes but Dalmasso’s slide on the more challenging red course proved more costly.

Austrian team-mates and friends, Benny Karl and Alex Payer then battled it out for the final podium spot in the men's small final, with Payer beating the reigning giant slalom Olympic champion to the bronze medal.

On a day beset by wind flurries and a challenging set on a tough hill in the Lesser Caucasus Mountains, Miki claimed individual honours with a debut world championship title beating Olympic silver medallist and favourite Ulbing into second. The top qualifier fell while pushing for the win leaving a stunned Miki, who has not even had a World Cup podium finish this season, to become world champion.

“I’m so happy,” said a thrilled Tsubaki, who had started her day by beating current PGS tour leader, Germany’s Ramona Theresia Hofmeister in the round of 16. “I always wanted to get the win so I cannot say anything. Thank you.”

Miki also beat overall tour leader, Julie Zogg, after the Swiss fell and skidded through the side netting in the quarter finals. Stretchered off the hill, Zogg will likely be a doubt for the next two events, the parallel slalom on Tuesday (21 February) and the team event, potentially alongside Caviezel, on Wednesday (22 February).

Shortly after bagging Poland’s first ever world medal in snowboard alpine, Krol’s compatriot Kwiatkowski claimed Poland’s second, this time a gold, beating Caviezel by just 0.26s. Both claimed first-ever world championship medals.

“It’s amazing,” said PGS World Cup tour leader Kwiatkowski on his win. “I can’t believe it. But this race was really hard, it was really difficult. I was thinking okay, just come down and stay on the board and go as fast as possible. I tried to be calm today.”

Caviezel, meanwhile, had knocked out one of the legends of the sport, Austria's Andreas Prommegger, in the quarter finals while World Cup overall tour leader Payer, bounced top qualifier and second ranked to him in this season's standings so far, Maurizio Bormolini (ITA), in the same round.

Additional shocks in the men’s event saw the likes of Arvid Auner (AUT), Stefan Baumeister (GER), Edwin Coratti (ITA), Roland Fischnaller (ITA) – second at the last world championships in Rogla, Slovenia in 2021 – and Aaron March (ITA) unable to progress past qualifying.

On being asked how he felt ahead of the team competition, which takes place on Wednesday and in which he’ll likely pair up with Krol, Kwiatkowski said: “I was checking Ola every heat, at the top, and I was so motivated... and I’m very happy to be on the podium with Ola, that’s amazing.”