By any measure, Australian snowboarder Valentino Guseli has had a stunning season.
Key points:
- Val Guseli claimed silver medals in the halfpipe and slopestyle FIS World Cup event at Mammoth Mountain
- Guseli is the first snowboarder to win World Cup medals in halfpipe, slopestyle and big air events in a single season
- Only four snowboarders have completed the feat in their entire careers
Now he can call it historic.
The 17-year-old Beijing Winter Olympian completed an extraordinary double at the Mammoth Mountain ski resort in California, winning silver in both the halfpipe and slopestyle FIS World Cup competitions.
Combined with the gold medal he won in the big air event in Edmonton in December, that means Guseli has won World Cup medals in all three park and pipe disciplines in the same season.
Guseli is only the fourth rider to achieve medals in all three disciplines, but the first in the sport’s history to do so in a single season.
“Wow. I guess I’m not really feeling it too much yet, but I’m honoured,” Guseli said.
“I’m so hyped.
“I just want to keep pushing — for podiums, wins, records, I guess,” he added with a laugh.
“But really I just want to keep loving my life and snowboarding and hanging out with awesome people and being in awesome situations like this one.”
Guseli landed his best score in the first of his three runs in the halfpipe final, scoring 85.25.
Japan’s Ruka Hirano won gold with a 91.50, with Chase Blackwell third with 84.00.
Guseli was then set to compete in the delayed slopestyle finals, but high winds forced that event’s cancellation, with the results from Thursday’s qualifying run would be taken as the final standings.
That left Guseli second with a score of 81.50, this time sandwiched between Americans Dusty Henricksen (88.68) and Chris Corning (81.33).
“I’m just super hyped to have landed my tricks this week and got some pretty good results,” Guseli said
“It’s a little bit unfortunate we didn’t get to have at it today in slopestyle, but I’m happy the pipe ran and I’m happy with my riding.”
Guseli, from Dalmeny on the New South Wales south coast, competed in his first Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022, reaching the halfpipe final where he came sixth.
As well as claiming medals in all three disciplines on the World Cup circuit, Guseli also won his first ever X-Games medal with a bronze in the superpipe last week.