There are few truths in the universe; Sean Pettit’s content is undeniably good, there’s no bad Greek food and Fieberbrunn is one of the greatest freeride meccas on earth. Stop four of the 2024 Freeride World Tour (FWT) was yet another entertaining and record-setting event. This was the first of the two final stops. The cut following the previous stop three in Georgia left only five women and 10 men standing in each field. This allowed for each rider to have two runs, taking the best score. This format certainly has its benefits for the riders, but with interesting weather and variable conditions leading up to the event, it was anything but a cakewalk. The Wildseeloder venue is a particularly challenging face with a high risk-reward ratio. There are several large airs that drop the rider directly above cliff bands and rock faces. While this obviously poses a massive risk, it can lead to pretty stellar runs. Just check out the winning run from the Men’s Ski top dog of the day, Ben Richard. This was the 15th FWT event in Fieberbrunn, and we’d say it’s one of the best we’ve seen. High-scoring runs, new and old faces aplenty, style, speed and a couple of jaw-dropping runs, but what else did you expect? It’s Fieberbrunn, baby.
In the Ski Women’s field, it was a day for France, as two of the three podium riders were representing the European red, white and blue, as they say. All the women put on a show, but with only the five best riders making the cut, it was steep competition. Third place went to the always-smooth Manon Loschi. The FWT rookie was coming off a tough crash at the previous Georgia stop, but was sitting the third place spot entering Fieberbrunn thanks to her stellar performance thus far on the tour. She took a line that few riders had voyaged into, and it paid off as she worked in a few airs and even but a lofty backflip to her feet to cap off the run. Second place went to the familiar Hedvig Wessel, who beat out Loschi by 0.33 points, scoring 82.33. Norway’s own took one of the larger airs head-on and hauled down the face, showing the judges what composure looks like. She also took a big backflip to her feet of the same feature Loschi had picked out. The top spot went to the young gun Astrid Cheylus. After her first run only brought in a score of 76.30, she came out of the gate hungry. The 20-year-old French ripper took an interesting approach to the skiers right at the start gate. She picked apart the face like a seasoned veteran, and the judges reflected that in her line selection score. With the win going to Cheylus, the Ski Women’s field is still completely up for grabs heading into the Xtreme Verbier final.
“I never imagined I could win a FWT Final event in my first year on tour. I am so happy about it! I totally love competing with such awesome riders in my category, and this motivates me even more for the future and for the Xtreme Verbier.” – Astrid Cheylus, 2024 Fieberbrunn Pro Winner
In the Ski Men’s field, it was another spot of epic proportions. For the second time ever (the first being the previous Georgia Pro stop), seven riders all finished with scores above 90. They say pressure makes diamonds, and boy does that saying stand up. We say stellar runs from practically the entire field, but there were a few stand-out performances. Third place went to the Canadian stallion Marcus Goguen. After his face-melting Georgia run, which earned him an outstanding 98. It was anybody’s guess what he had in the tank. With a massive three into a large cliff section and a great recovery on a huge backflip, the Googanator earned an epic score of 94.67. On any given day, that might earn you a spot on the throne, but not today. Second place went to perhaps the most consistent skier of the year, Max Hitzig. His tenacious riding led to possibly the most gutsy 360 that we’ve seen. Combine that with two gigantic backflips, and you’ve got yourself a classic Hitzig full-throttle run. The top seat of the day went to Kiwi Ben Richards. Big shoutout to Richards, as this was his first top-seat finish on the season. He’s known for his high-speed pedal-to-the-metal skiing, and we got a healthy dose of that here. What separated his run was not the speed, however, but the composure. He didn’t lose any sense of balance or power at speed, and each landing was executed to near perfection. An absolute beauty of a run from Richards! The judges were clearly floored by his freestyle-at-high-speeds run and awarded him a 97.00.
“Winning here in Fieberbrunn for the first of the two FWT finals means a lot to me. I have worked so hard on the FWT qualifier and challenger series to get here. To win in this competitive category was beyond my imagination. I’m so happy about it!”– Ben Richards, 2024 Fieberbrunn Pro winner
Below, you’ll find the podium results, winning runs and a full photo gallery of the event.
Click here to watch the full coverage of Fieberbrunn stop four on the official FWT website.
The FWT Final showdown, the Verbier Xtreme, remains the last stop for 2024. The comp has a weather window of March 23-31.
Ski Women’s Results
🥇 Astrid Cheylus (FRA) 86.33
🥈 Hedvig Wessel (NOR) 82.33
🥉 Manon Loschi (FRA) 82.00
Ski Men’s Results
🥇 Ben Richards (NZL) 97.00
🥈 Max Hitzig (GER) 95.33
🥉 Marcus Goguen (CAN) 94.67
Photo Gallery
Photography: Dom Daher and Jeremy Bernard | Courtesy of the Freeride World Tour
