Oldham and Ragettli claim victories at first-ever freeski World Cup on Georgia soil

“It’s been a bit of a crazy week and obviously we’ve struggled a bit with the weather,” Oldham said just after the results came in, “But overall I’m just really happy to be out here and enjoy the course, because it’s been a lot of fun and I’m really stoked to be out riding with everybody.”

Making the day a little bit more special for Oldham was the fact that her older brother Bruce was competing in the men’s competition, earning a fourth-place result in his first career World Cup start.

“It’s so cool to be here with my brother,” Oldham went on, “It’s the first World Cup we’ve ever skied together and I’m so stoked because he’s been riding so well, so for him to finally be here and have a shot at the World Cup is awesome.”

Second place on the day and the first of four podiums for the Swiss squad went to Sarah Hoefflin for the 13th World Cup podium of her career. Third place, meanwhile, went to a first-time World Cup podium winner, as Germany’s Alia Delia Eichinger nabbed the final spot in the top three, just ahead of her teammate and another World Cup first-timer in Mureil Mohr.

Despite not competing in Bakuriani, Kelly Sildaru (EST) remains atop the women’s slopestyle World Cup rankings with 200 points, while Hoefflin moves into second place with 160, and Oldham jumps into third with 136.

RAGETTLI CLAIMS 10th WORLD CUP WIN AND TAKES WORLD CUP LEAD

For the men, it seemed clear throughout training that the Bakuriani competition was Ragettli’s to lose, as the most successful athlete in FIS Freeski World Cup history put down clean run after clean run throughout every training session leading up to finals.

However, finals day saw perhaps the most challenging conditions of the entire week, forcing Ragettli into uncharacteristic falls on runs two and three.

Lucky for the 23-year-old, the three different 1260’s and clean execution throughout his rail sections on his first run would be more than enough to put him into double-digits on the all-time World Cup wins column, and his score of 73.75 was nearly 10 points ahead of second and third place finishers, the brothers Colin and Thierry Wili.