Laax, October 2, 2020. The LAAX OPEN, Europe's most traditional and important snowboard event, is scheduled for January 19-23, 2021. International snowboard pros will compete in the World Cup at Crap Sogn Gion in the slopestyle and halfpipe disciplines to showcase top-class freestyle sport and earn points, prize money, and prestige. This was confirmed at the digital FIS Congress this week. The FIS guarantees that the 2020/2021 tour will take place thanks to a compact concept that will see the Freestyle World Cup circuit through the season as a safe bubble in close cooperation with the host venues. The FIS Snowboard World Cup in LAAX is scheduled to take place as part of the European package at the beginning of the new year.
LAAX has been setting the tone in freestyle for more than three decades. The multi-award-winning resort – LAAX was voted "World's Best Freestyle Resort" four times in a row by the public and jury at the World Ski Awards – continues to be a pioneer in freestyle even in extraordinary times and is making all the necessary preparations for a safe winter and World Cup. Back in the summer, LAAX confirmed to its association partners that it would not impose any restrictions on sporting activities and would offer contests for women and men in both slopestyle and halfpipe. The effort required to achieve a perfect set-up is enormous, but this decision is a service to the riders and their sport.
The OPEN winners in LAAX include Olympic champions Iouri Podladtchikov, Shaun White, Sebastien Toutant, Olympic champions Chloe Kim, Kelly Clark, Jamie Anderson, as well as snowboard icons Stale Sandbech, Mark McMorris, Danny Davis, Ayumu Hirano, Peetu Piiroinen, Max Parrot, and Silje Norendahl. At the last edition in January 2020, X-Games winners Julia Marino, Queralt Castellet, Seb Toutant, and Scotty James stood on the top podium.
The LAAX OPEN team is delighted to be able to start preparations for LAAX OPEN 2021 in earnest. Special measures to protect against COVID-19 are a top priority. These include developing safety concepts with Swiss-Ski and the Inside LAAX app, as well as visible items such as LAAX neck warmers with integrated certified masks.
