Ski and Snowboard Club Vail alumnus finishes fourth in Calgary Snow Rodeo freeski halfpipe World Cup
After qualifying first, Matt Labaugh just missed the podium in the third of four Olympic selection events
Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP
After posting the top qualification score on New Year’s Day, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail alumni Matthew Labaugh finished fourth in the freeski halfpipe World Cup event in Calgary, Canada on Saturday.
The 21-year-old posted an 89.60 score on his second run in the finals, finishing two-tenths back from teammate Birk Irving as fellow American Nick Goepper (94.80) claimed his second-career World Cup halfpipe win. New Zealand’s Finley Melville Ives (92.20) finished second in the event, the third of five freeski halfpipe competitions on the 2025-2026 World Cup calendar.
“It feels amazing. I really needed this one to qualify for the Olympics for the USA team. It was the opposite result last year at this contest between me and Fin, so it’s a fun way it turned out this year,” said Goepper, who won bronze in slopestyle at the 2014 Games and silver in the event at both the 2018 and 2022 Olympics as well.
On Saturday, Labaugh was the final athlete to hop into the pipe on run No. 2.
The Rye, New York native, who moved to the Vail area at 13, boosted the amplitude on his opening hit, a clean switch left 900 tail grab. He coupled a switch right side 10 with a left side double 12 — sneaking in a Japan grab on the latter — before closing with a right side double 12 into a perfect double flat spin. While he appeared satisfied with his effort, Labaugh ultimately just missed earning a second-career World Cup podium to go along with his third-place result from Aspen last year.
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In just her third World Cup start, Australian 15-year-old Indra Brown topped the women’s field, which was missing Olympic champion Eileen Gu and reigning world champion Zoe Atkin. In the final run, Brown linked back-to-back 900s, then sequenced a left side 720, switch right side 540 and switch left side 360 into an alley-oop close. China’s Kexin Zhang placed second while Winter Park’s Svea Irving rounded out the podium in third.
The road to Milano Cortina goes through Aspen
Aspen’s Alex Ferreira pre-qualified for Milano Cortina based on winning his third halfpipe crystal globe last season. Two of the other three remaining U.S. roster spots will be determined by best single result at one of the four selection events this winter. With the victory at the Snow Rodeo — the third selection event — Goepper officially locked up his fourth Olympic team. The remaining automatic spot will be finalized at the final selection event, the U.S. Grand Prix next week in Aspen.
“You know, they make us do this every single time, ’til the last minute. I got to have a conversation with somebody,” Goepper said in a post-run interview on skiandsnowboard.live. “But it definitely gets it all down to the wire. We like to pick the person who is skiing the best right when it counts, right when they’re peaking.”
U.S. Ski and Snowboard can make a discretionary selection to name the fourth individual later this month. The 2026 Olympics begin Feb. 6, with the freeski halfpipe competition taking place Feb. 19 and 20.
