World Championships medallists turn silver into gold at Klovsjo World Cup

Silver medallists at the World Championships in Lillehammer, Australia’s Ben Tudhope, Italy’s Jacopo Luchini and USA’s Mike Schultz had a golden journey to Sweden triumphing twice at the Klovsjo 2022 World Cup.

The Swedish resort hosted two snowboard cross races on Friday and Saturday (28 and 29 January) in the penultimate World Cup of the 2021-2022 season. 

Silver in the men’s SB-LL2 snowboard cross race in the Worlds and bronze in the dual banked slalom, Tudhope followed Friday’s win with another victory in Sweden on Saturday.

“Back to back World Cup Gold!!🥇🥇 Good times in Sweden 💪 Next up… Off to Canada,” the Australian rider posted, mentioning the World Cup in Big White that will wrap up the season in February. 

Great Britain’s Owen Pick finished with silver followed by USA’s Keith Gabel. Garrett Geros ended in fourth place.

Second place in both the men’s snowboard cross and dual banked slalom SB-LL1 in Lillehammer, Schultz left Sweden with an important confident boost ahead of the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games in March.

His second gold came on a USA podium sweep with Tyler Burdick in second and Thomas Wilson in third. Austria’s Rene Eckhart finished fourth.

“Another Golden day in Sweden. I finished with a gold medal alongside my red, white, and blue teammates. Awesome riding today boys!” Schultz posted on social media following his second gold medal.

Italian rider Luchini left Norway with a World Championships silver in the men’s dual banked slalom SB-UL but failed to reach the snowboard cross final. In Sweden, he followed his Friday victory with another gold on Saturday.

ITALIAN SWEEP

It was also a triple podium for Italy with Mirko Moro taking silver and Riccardo Cardani picking bronze. Snowboard cross silver medallist in Lillehammer, Great Britain’s James Barnes-Miller finished in fourth in Klovsjo.

The women’s multiclass ended with a one-two USA podium as Brenna Huckaby took gold followed by Katlyn Maddry. Netherlands’ Renske van Beek took silver with another US rider, Courtney Godfrey in fourth. 

Complete results from Klovsjo 2022 can be found here.

Big White, Canada will host the last World Cup of the season from 8 to 12 February with two snowboard cross races. Snowboard cross events will also kick off the Para snowboard action at the Winter Paralympics in Beijing with the men’s and women’s finals on 7 March.