The sixteenth season of the Freeride World Tour kicks off on January 13 with the first stop at Kicking Horse Golden in British Columbia. Here are the favorites among the 44 athletes competing this year.
While the first stage of the Freeride World Tour 2022 is approaching, it has been known for several months now that Wadeck Gorak will not be part of it. The Private Sport Shop ambassador has decided to devote himself to his video projects. Productions that we will obviously reveal on We Rock Sport. To justify his decision, the 33 years old skier from Ubay explained to Ski Chrono that "the circuit was leaning more and more towards back-country, a discipline where the mountain is laid out with kicks and bumps on the rocks so that people can do tricks. But freeriding is all about using the mountain as it is, without having to do anything to it. Today, the Freeride World Tour doesn't touch the mountain, but we go to faces that are so accessible and playful from a freestyle point of view, that we end up having competitions that are close to back-country. I feel good when there's a slope and it's scary, when you have to manage to do tricks in unlikely places, not when it's already mapped out."
As for the riders competing on this Freeride World Tour, four titles will be awarded at the end of the season (women's and men's ski and snowboard). 44 athletes will participate in the five stages. In the women's category, World Champion Jess Hotter is back to defend her title, with eight other competitors vying for the crown. Three-time FWT finalist Hedvig Wessel will focus on new projects, but could be back for an event as a wildcard. On the French side, Manon Loschi will be the only French representative in this category.
Also in skiing, but in the men's category, world champion Maxime Chabloz will have to face some tough opposition (including Carl Regner and Max Palm) to be crowned again. Newcomer Max Hitzig, who impressed the judges last year by winning the FWT event in Fieberbrunn as a wildcard, is hungry for more podiums, as is Reine Barkered, who returns as a wildcard due to injury. Léo Slemett will be in charge of defending the French colors against all these riders.
In snowboarding, Marion Haerty is still not back. The Private Sport Shop ambassador was already absent last season to devote herself to the Natural Selection Tour. France's Tiphanie Perrotin will be the only French rider in the field, and will be attempting to retain the world title she won last year on her first Freeride World Tour appearance. She'll have to hold off runner-up Erika Vikander and the eternal Manuela Mandl, who won last year's Xtreme Verbier. Katie Anderson and Anna Orlova have also requalified, thus completing the women's snowboarding category at the highest level.
Finally, the battle will be fierce in men's snowboarding with the presence of three Frenchmen (Camille Armand, Ludovic Guillot-Diat and Gabriel Bletton). We hope to see them knock off the reigning world champion Blake Moller even if the danger could also come from the new recruits Liam Riviera and Holden Samuels.