The 2020–21 FIS Snowboard World Cup is the 27th World Cup season in snowboarding organized by International Ski Federation. The season will start on 12 December 2020 and will conclude on 27 March 2021. Competitions consist of parallel slalom, parallel giant slalom, snowboard cross, halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air. Thirteen Snowboard Park & Pipe competitions (five slopestyle, five halfpipe, three big air) have been or are in the process of being confirmed for the 2020-21 season.
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The 2020-21 snowboarding competition season, however, is already starting off on uneven footing. Normally, the snowboarders would be able to attend summer camps at Woodward and would have arrived in Europe for training prior to the season beginning in New Zealand in August. Some events have already been canceled, and depending on the international situation we could see further changes as the season progresses.
How Does This Season Differ From Previous?
Everything this season is delayed for Covid-19, and for instance, the U.S. Snowboarding team has had to travel to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard bubble in Austria. This is the place where they can join their fellow skiers in training. The European Union has not yet reopened its borders to the U.S. for non-essential travel, but professional athletes who have to travel to FIS World Cups are an exception. And you can not improve your game if you are not training with the best! The American teams are great favorites for the season and their “bubbling-up” and practical isolation to avoid Covid-19 shows just how serious they are about the season.
All the snowboard teams will travel together in bubbles for competitions this winter. American favorite Chris Corning explains: “We all travel together so nobody really leaves each other. We don’t go out to eat and only one person goes to the grocery store, so we try to minimize our contact with anyone outside the bubble even though we’re all traveling.”
Competitive Snowboarding Has Different Events:
- Alpine: The snowboarder speeds down a hill while navigating a series of gates. The racer with the fastest time wins.
- Halfpipe: Snowboarders perform tricks on the halfpipe and are judged based on height, difficulty, and other criteria.
- Giant slalom: Two snowboarders race down a hill while navigating their way through a series of gates.
- Boardercross: This event combines techniques from snowboarding and motocross biking. Groups of four to six snowboard through a slalom course with various jumps and turns. The first two or three snowboarders to finish the course move on to the next round until there’s one winner.
- Slopestyle: This event is similar to the halfpipe, with the exception that the stunts are performed on obstacles in the terrain park.
There are also “big-air” competitions like ESPN’s X Games and the World Extreme Snowboarding Championships, in which snowboarders perform more extreme stunts.
Betting On Snowboard Competitions
The market for betting on snowboard is growing with every single season, as more and more international bettors find this exciting sport and realize the possibility for great wins. Always make sure you find a proper, safe and regulated sportsbook to place your bets, using comparison sites is a great way to find the one that suits you best – whether you are a casual bettor or “going pro” with your strategies. We recommend you have more than one betting account and more than one sportsbook in your arsenal so you can always find the best odds for your bets.