Baumgartner in the Halfpipe: Satisfied with 15th place in Engadin!

Baumgartner in the Halfpipe: Satisfied with 15th place in Engadin!

In the Halfpipe final of the World Cup in the Engadine, the Austrian Freeskier Samuel Baumgartner took 15th place. Baumgartner scored 59.50 points in the first run, but had to accept a fall in the second round. The 18-year-old New Zealand Finley Melville Ives secured the gold medal with outstanding 96.00 points. The British Zoe Atkin was the winner for women.

Baumgartner, who landed in 15th place in the first World Cup participation in the Halfpipe, was satisfied with his qualification for the final of the best 16 athletes. He opened the final and dared a lot of risky driving behavior in the second run, which ultimately led to his fall. Despite the incident, Baumgartner plans to look optimistically into the future and to focus on the upcoming major events such as the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina and the 2027 World Cup in Montafon.

Austria's medal success in Engadin

Austria was strong at the World Cup overall and won four medals. Lara Wolf and Arvid Auner each won silver in the ski slopestyle and parallel slalom. Sabine Payer and Andreas Prommegger also secured a bronze card in the parallel team competition. Alessandro Hämmerle also contributed to the medal yield and won bronze in the snowboard cross.

Finley Melville Ives - an emerging star

The New Zealand winner Finley Melville Ives was born in Dunedin, but lives his whole life in Wānaka. He comes from a snowboard family that motivated him to ski in early childhood. He was already on skis at the age of three and Fin was invited to a junior event for the first time. His career picked up speed when he became part of the National Development programs from Snow Sports NZ in 2018 and regularly achieved outstanding positions in competitions.

Melville Ives repeatedly impressed the audience at international competitions. After his first World Cup event in December 2022, in which he took the 6th place, and his participations in the 2023 Winter X Games and the Youth Olympic Winter Games in Gangwon, where he won a silver medal in Freeski Halfpipe, his ambitions are clear for the future: he strives to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina to win other gold at the X Games.

Olympic qualifications and future prospects

The qualification for freestyle skiing at the upcoming Olympic Winter Games in Milan Cortina 2026 will be made via the Olympic quota ranking, which will be published on January 19, 2026. The ranking is created by the points that athletes collect from various competitions. This includes the FIS World Cup points collected between July 1, 2024 and January 18, 2026 as well as the ranking lists of the World Championships in 2025.

For freestyle disciplines such as Big Air and Slopestyle count the best results to assign quota places. This also affects Austrian athletes who have to maximize their services until the qualification period on January 18, 2026 in order to be successful in the competition for the quota places. The Olympic Games promise an exciting time for athletes worldwide and especially for the next generations, which also include Baumgartner and Melville Ives.