Bring on Milan 2026. New Zealand's next generation of snowsports athletes have lit up the Park and Pipe Junior World Championships in Switzerland, snaring a gold and two silver medals in just two days.
The event is barely halfway through, yet it is already New Zealand's best result ever at the championships.
On Thursday night (NZT), Wānaka teens Cam Melville Ives (15) and Luca Harrington (18) won silver in snowboard slopestyle and freeski big air respectively, adding to New Zealand's medal haul alongside Gustav Legnavsky's freeski halfpipe gold medal, won on Wednesday.
Melville Ives landed a personal best competition run, lacing together a front 1080 and back-to-back 1260s on the jumps, the first time he has ever landed the combination in competition.
Melville Ives told 1News he was "super-stoked" with the result in the highest level of competition he has competed in to date.
Likewise, Harrington said he was "over the moon" with his big air silver medal, not long after being left disappointed by missing the New Zealand Olympic team for Beijing.
"I was bummed to miss the Olympics but this is a huge stepping stone towards [making the next Games]," Harrington told 1News.
Harrington laid down a triple 1620 with a safety grab and a huge switch double 1800 with a tail grab to earn a score of 182.50, eight points clear of the bronze medallist.
It is Harrington's third Junior World Championships and the 18-year-old said his experience had helped him this time around.
"I was really nervous at my first one [at Cardrona in 2018] but through time and experience you learn a lot more and can deal with the pressure," Harrington said.
On Wednesday, 16-year-old Legnavsky landed a scorching run to win gold in the freeski halfpipe final, shaking off what he described as a disappointing performance at the Beijing Olympics, where he finished 19th.
His gold medal run at the Junior World Championships included three different double corks, a switch left double 1080, a left double cork 1260 and a left alley oop double 900 on his final hit.
It was the first time Legnavsky had landed the left alley oop double 900 in competition. He was rewarded a huge 96.00 by the judges, a score which remained untouchable for the remainder of the competition.
"I was hoping for a better result at the Olympics and it made me really hungry for the next comp, and I knew I had a really good chance [to win] at this one," Legnavsky told 1News on Friday.
Reflecting on his Olympic experience, while disappointed with his personal result, he described being there as "pretty amazing".
"It was great to have a bunch of leaders with me. The Porteous brothers and Ben Harrington too, even though it was also his first Olympics," Legnavsky said.
The 16-year-old is just the latest Kiwi freeskier to shine in the halfpipe, following in the steps of Beijing gold medallist Nico Porteous, who also won the junior world title in 2018, as well as the Wells brothers before him.
Legnavsky pointed to the superpipe at Cardrona as being a major reason New Zealand was able to consistently produce world-class halfpipe skiers.
"Having that there is huge. It gets the younger generation inspired, especially in what is a bit of a dying sport. You turn up to a competition and there'll be 150 people competing in slopestyle and only 20 to 60 in the pipe.
"[Halfpipe] is quite a scary sport," he said, explaining the disparity between the two.
"In slopestyle you just need to go straight really and all your tricks are going forward, but in halfpipe you kinda need to know how to ski well and know how to transition through the pipe in order to get enough air."
Three other Kiwis were in action on Thursday night at the championships. Dane Menzies (16) had a fantastic snowboard slopestyle training but wasn’t able to execute his run in the finals, finishing in 16th place.
Fin Melville Ives (twin brother of Cam) finished in 12th place in the freeski big air and Harper Souness (16) finished in 16th in the same event.
The Kiwi athletes will be heading into a day of training in Leysin, Switzerland before the final events of the championships on Sunday, the freeski slopestyle and snowboard big air.
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