Above the winners of FWT 2022. Photo: @freerideworldtour/©JBERNARD
The 15th edition of the Freeride World Tour came to an end last Saturday as the finals went down in Verbier, Switzerland. With a new concept in place this year, the two final stops of the tour weighed more in points than the first three. And that wasn’t the only new thing for this winter, as all four winners of this year’s tour are first-time FWT Champions.
“Victor de Le Rue returned to competition as a Wildcard and won the men’s snowboard category with a high-speed run down the steepest section of the venue”
Known for pushing its riders to tackle some of the most difficult conditions, the final stop lived up to the same challenging conditions the riders had. faced throughout the whole tour. However, the challenging conditions didn’t hold back the riders, who set new performance standards for mixing freeride and freestyle on the steep, gnarly slopes of the Bec Des Rosses venue.
Manuela Mandl (AUT) delivered a run to take a dominant win in the women’s snowboard category. She was out of contention for the world title but won by a nearly 11-point margin. “It feels well earned – we had tough, tough conditions. It has been one of the big aims of my entire career to win at least once in Verbier – and now I did it! So yes, I’m overwhelmingly happy,” Manuela on her win.
