Japan led the European Cup medal table in 2025-26
14 medals across halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air — Japan's strongest European Cup season we have on record, beating Switzerland on home soil.
The 2025-26 FIS European Cup season is a wrap. Going through the medal data, the most surprising finding isn't who won the most events — it's which country stacked up the most medals overall.
Japan: 14 medals (4 gold, 4 silver, 6 bronze) across halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air. That's more than any other nation, including hosts Switzerland (13 medals, 1 gold) and second-place Netherlands (8 medals, 3 gold).
For a circuit named "European Cup," the top of the medal table this year sits firmly in East Asia.
The full medal table — 2025-26 EC
| Country | Medals | Gold |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | 14 | 4 |
| Switzerland | 13 | 1 |
| Netherlands | 8 | 3 |
| Italy | 6 | 3 |
| Korea | 4 | 2 |
| Germany | 4 | 0 |
| Spain | 3 | 1 |
(Belgium also took home 2 golds despite only 2 medals total.)
How Japan distributed its 14 medals
- Halfpipe: 6 medals (2 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze)
- Big Air: 5 medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze)
- Slopestyle: 3 medals (1 gold, 0 silver, 2 bronze)
Halfpipe was Japan's strongest discipline this season. Japan won 6 of the 12 halfpipe medals available across all four EC halfpipe events, with two golds. The closest competition was Korea (3 medals) and Switzerland (3 medals).
Top Japanese performers
- WATANABE Hiromu — 3 medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) across Big Air and Slopestyle
- Sorana Ohashi — 2 medals (both gold) in Halfpipe — the only EC halfpipe rider to take two golds this season
- Yura Murase — 2 medals (1 gold, 1 bronze) in Big Air and Slopestyle, plus the Corvatsch women's halfpipe gold to close the season
- Haruka Suzuki — 2 medals (1 silver, 1 bronze) in Halfpipe
- Single-medal contributors: HORIGOME Sora, KATO Imari, Shojiro Otsubo (silver at Corvatsch men's halfpipe), Hanato Minamiya, Koyata Kikuchihara
What this tells us
A few things stand out from the 2025-26 EC numbers:
- The European Cup isn't just for Europeans. The top of the medal table this season was a Japanese contingent. For non-European athletes considering the EC for competition prep, the data is encouraging — the field is competitive AND welcoming to international riders.
- Japan's halfpipe depth shows up below World Cup. Six halfpipe medals from one country in a four-event season is half of all medals available. That tracks with the strength Japan has shown at higher levels and confirms the depth runs further down the development chart than just the headline-grabbing names.
- The medal count flipped Switzerland. Switzerland is the dominant historical EC nation (its riders make up the all-time leaders), but this season Japan edged them out 14 to 13. Whether that's a one-year blip or the start of a real trend is a 2026-27 question.
What's next
The EC halfpipe season ended at Corvatsch on April 14. Slopestyle and big air finals also wrapped in April. The 2026-27 season opens in winter. Whether Japan returns at this scale — particularly post-Olympics, when many top athletes shift focus — is the interesting question.
Full European Cup leaderboards are here, with season filtering back to 2019-20 if you want to compare past years against 2025-26.
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