Seventeen Park & Pipe athletes to represent Australia at Junior World Championships

The Park and Pipe Junior World Championships are in Leysin, Switzerland this week, where Australia will be represented by 17 athletes across Freeski and Snowboard Halfpipe, Slopestyle and Big Air.

Many of the athletes have been preparing for the competition at the new National Snowsports Training Centre (NSTC) Airbag facility in Jindabyne, before making their way to Europe five weeks ago for a final preparation camp in Livigno, Italy.

Snowboarder Jesse Parkinson will headline the team, fresh off his debut Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup in Georgia over the weekend, where he placed fifth.

As one of the most experienced in the team, Parkinson also represented Australia at the 2019 Junior World Championships in Klappen, Sweden, alongside teammates Maxson Chen and Joshua Robertson-Hahn who are all competing this week in Switzerland.

Most of the up-and-coming athletes all made their international debuts over the past five weeks, competing at their first Europa Cups, which saw Meila Stalker win a Big Air bronze medal in her Europa Cup debut. 

Snow Australia’s Park & Pipe Head Coach, David Parr, said the training at the new NSTC Airbag facility, and recent on-snow training have provided exceptional development opportunities for the team.

“The team are so excited about the opportunity to experience a world class competition venue at Leysin, and represent Australia as they mix it with the world’s best Junior Park and Pipe athletes,” Parr said.

“The preparation camps at the new NSTC Airbag facility in December and January, and the last five weeks at our camp base in Livigno have accelerated the athletes' trick repertoire and confidence.

“Many of them have competed in their first ever Europa Cups in the build up to Junior World Champs, where they were able to test their performance in a competition environment.

“Injuries are an inherent part of park and pipe, so managing trick progressions from airbag to snow, with on-snow availability and support of the Emerging Talent Program services has been a big focus.

“There have been over 30 new tricks learnt in the past 5 weeks, directly attributable to the airbag training facility at NSTC Park.”

Parr said the team are all heading into Leysin 2022 with their own individual goals, as the event represents something unique to each athlete.

“The athletes all have their own individual process and performance based aims,” he said.

“Some will be aiming for a simple, clean, full run in a competition environment, and others will want to put down a new big banger trick.

“Each athletes’ experience and definition of a successful experience and exposure will be different, and it’s our focus to give these junior athletes early and appropriate competition exposure, to help build and prepare Australia's next 2026 and 2030 Olympians, that have been inspired by the current cohort who competed at Beijing 2022.”

Snow Australia would like to congratulate the following athletes selected to represent Australia at Leysin 2022 Park and Pipe FIS Junior World Championships:

The Leysin 2022 Park and Pipe FIS Junior World Championships will take place from 7 - 13 March 2022. See the full competition schedule HERE