Featured Image: Joachim Clausen Hansen

---

Another summer means another edition of the Scandinavian Team Battle at CopenHill. The outdoor event, which takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark, was absolutely electric in its fourth edition, both metaphorically and literally since CopenHill supplies clean energy to the city. Despite grand efforts from every crew, it was Team Sweden who walked away with the win. This cemented them as the undefeated champions, as they have now gone four for four, winning every Team Battle since the event’s conception. The riders, weather and course were all unpredictable, ever-changing and performative in the best ways. This is far from your average slopestyle competition, so we’ll give you the rundown.

This year’s event had a few changes, but the format remained the same. Five teams, each from a different country, competed with two skiers per team. They rode the course as a pair, tapping in and out from the variety of features that were laid throughout the green, turf-covered run. The teams are listed below:

🇸🇪 TEAM SWEDEN: Jesper Tjäder & Emil Granbom

🇳🇴 TEAM NORWAY: Johan Berg & Mikkel BK

🇩🇰 TEAM DENMARK: Jakob Ebskamp & Isabella Tvede

🇫🇮 TEAM FINLAND: Harald Hellström & Elias Syrja

🇦🇹 TEAM INNSBRUCK: Lisa Zimmerman & Tereza Korábová

As far as the differences between this year and last, the features were a big one. This year’s course was by far the most intricate and interesting one we’ve seen. The most memorable features, such as the quarter pipe and wall ride to down rail, were kept around, with new editions added throughout including more rail options, moveable components and even a tiny pool. Yes, you read that right. Check out the immersive photo gallery below for further evidence.

With plenty of time and immense talent, each team had to get creative with how they attacked the course. At one point Emil Granbom jumped into the swimming pool himself making his skis into a nice transfer rail for his Swedish teammate Jesper Tjäder to ride. Mikkel BK of Team Norway went bigger than anybody else, tapping Johan Berg’s skis while holding an umbrella at the same time. It was as if Marry Poppins and Red Bull drew up the playbook. The Fins Elias Syrja and Harald Hellström thought outside the box and created a new rail themselves using one of the fences meant to control the crowd.

The event had scattered cloud cover throughout the majority of the two-hour showdown, and with 15 minutes left, the rain began to pour. This discouraged neither the crowd nor the riders, however, as it simply greased up the astroturf run and gave more speed to the riders. As mentioned above, Mikkel BK utilized this to his advantage and boosted into the stratosphere to end the day, sending the crowd into a frenzy. But even with the amount of style and creativity, Team Sweden could not be stopped. The judges testified that, “they basically nailed every run throughout the entire day,” and, with their signature tandem backflips, they stole the show once again.

“This format is such a sick and fun way to get creative with your teammate, and I think it does a great job of as showcasing skiing to an audience who most likely doesn’t know that much about the sport coming into it.” – Jakob Ebskamp, Scandinavian Team Battle Event Organizer and skier on Team Denmark

There’s no need to cry if you could not make it to the event. Photographers Joachim Clausen Hansen, Jesper Grønnemark and Carl Ulslev Degn were on the ground and snapped a jaw-dropping collection of images that are (almost) as good as the real deal. Thanks to the organizers, staff, crowd and riders for putting on another iconic edition of the Scandi Team Battle at CopenHill.

---

Photo Gallery

PHOTO: Carl Ulslev Degn

PHOTO: Jesper Grønnemark

PHOTO: Joachim Clausen Hansen