Ledeux takes fourth Font Romeu win, Ragettli triumphant in comeback competition

“The course skied so well today,” said Ledeux after her win, “I’m so happy to land my first and second run, and to do it in France it’s just incredible.”

Second place for the women was U.S. skier Marin Hamill, who grabbed her first career World Cup podium with her performance. Skiing stylishly and confidently, Hamill scored 73.56 for her second run of finals, which saw her lead off with a left 540 mute into switch left 540 Japan combo, and later link a right slide backside 270 to left slide frontside 270 off combo through the rails.

Coming in third to round out the women’s podium was Lara Wolf (AUT), as the 21-year-old also grabbed her first career World Cup podium. However, Wolf’s stylish run, which included a switch left bio 900 safety on the final jump into a right slide backside 270 out on the cannon rail, probably would have had her into second place had she not gotten a little loose on the final rail feature and lost considerable points.

Despite not competing in Font Romeu, Estonia’s Kelly Sildaru remains atop the women’s sloepstyle rankings with 200 points, though Hamill with her second-place finish has closed the gap considerably, and now sits in second place behind Sildaru with 136 points.

RAGETTLI TRIUMPHANT IN RETURN FROM KNEE INJURY

Over on the men’s side of things we saw what was a near miraculous return to competition by Andri Ragettli, the reigning slopestyle World Champion who followed up that gold-medal performance in Aspen last season with a heavy crash in the big air competition, damaging the MCL and tearing the PCL in his left knee.

Less then 10 months post-surgery, however, Ragettli was back on the World Cup scene in Font Romeu, getting some competition reps in with less than three weeks to go before the start of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

While Ragettli had been a slopestyle gold medal favourite (and a serious threat in big air)  before his injury, up until Sunday it was anybody’s guess as to what level he would be at in time for the start of the big show in China.

As it turns out, the level Ragettli has returned at could be classified as Very High.

The top men’s qualifier from Thursday, Ragettli dropped in last on the first run and laid down a scorcher, kicking things off with a switch left double misty 1260 mute, followed by a massive left triple 1440 safety on jump two, and then a right double 1260 double Japan on the final jump.

Through the rails Ragettli then went with a left 270 on to conturing 630 off on the kicker rail, to a right k-fed on the down-flat-down tube, before finishing things off with a left k-fed transfer on the final rail feature.