Murase grabs first World Cup win while Toutant makes his Olympic team case at the Calgary Snow Rodeo

“Today was really tough, because I was really nervous before the competition,” said Murase before receiving her traditional Snow Rodeo cowboy hat at the awards ceremony, “But I’m so happy to win my first slopestyle World Cup today.”

Second place went to Murase’s compatriot Miyabi Onitsuka, as the Japanese team’s most veteran woman grabbed her first slopestyle World Cup podium in almost exactly three years, riding with a confidence that we haven’t seen from her lately. Stomping a perfect half-cab on backside 360 out on the second rail followed by a heavy 50-50 transfer to frontside boardslide on the Toyota rail, and then going cab 900 melon, backside 720 weddle and finally a classic frontside 360 indy to finish things off, Onitsuka earned second place with a score of 77.18 – just half a point back of Murase.

Third place on the women’s side went to Canada’s own Laurie Blouin, as the winner of the Snow Rodeo last time it was in town back in 2019/20 once again grabbed a piece of the podium with some more consistently strong riding.

With a rail section punctuated by a 50-50 transfer to frontside lipslide on the Toyota rail, Blouin would then stomp a huge cab double underflip 900 on the first jump, into a frontside 720 tail on the second hit, and a crippler indy to finish things off with a score of 75.73 and the ninth podium of her World Cup career.

With her victory, Murase moved to the top of the FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe overall standings with 236 points, followed by her teammate Reira Iwabuchi in second with 172, and Anna Gasser (AUT) in third with 160.

TOUTANT MAKES PUSH FOR OLYMPIC SPOT WITH CLUTCH VICTORY

On the men’s side of things, Sebastien Toutant came into competition at Calgary on the outside looking in of the Canadian men’s Olympic team picture, behind the likes of Max Parrot, Mark McMorris, Darcy Sharpe and Liam Brearley – despite the fact he won big air gold for his country at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics.

On Saturday the 29-year-old muscled his way back into the Canadian team conversation in a big way, with either one of his two outstanding runs being enough to give him the victory on the day.

Run one ended up being the slightly higher-scoring of the two, and it began with a hardway 270 on to regular on the first down rail, into a front blunt 450 off on the flat rail, and then a hardway cab 270 gap boardslide to switch on the Toyota rail.

Moving on to the jumps, Toutant started out with a cab 1260 tail grab, into a backside 1260 weddle – spinning off the heels in a way that few snowboarders on earth would even conceive of attempting – and finished things off with a switch backside rodeo 900 weddle to earn a score of 86.86, as well as his first World Cup victory in almost two years and a very real chance of representing his country at what would be his third Olympic Winter Games.