2025-26 European Cup halfpipe wrap — four stops, three nations

The 2025-26 FIS European Cup halfpipe calendar was compact. Four events total, all packed into a two-week window:

• April 1, 2026 — Laax, SUI: women's and men's halfpipe
• April 14, 2026 — Corvatsch, SUI: women's and men's halfpipe

That's it. Twelve podium spots available across the season, distributed among just three nations: Japan (6), Korea (3), Switzerland (3). Not a single medal went to any other country across the entire halfpipe slate.

Multi-medal riders this season

• sorana ohashi (JP) — 2 gold (Laax, Corvatsch) — the only halfpipe rider to win twice
• LEE Jio (KR) — 1 gold, 1 silver — won Corvatsch men's, took silver at Laax
• WICK Lura (CH) — 1 silver, 1 bronze
• Haruka Suzuki (JP) — 1 silver, 1 bronze

Four riders — two Japanese, one Korean, one Swiss — took home most of the season's halfpipe medals.

The Corvatsch finals (April 14)

The season closer at Corvatsch in St. Moritz produced two clean results.

Women's halfpipe:

1. Yura Murase (JP) — 360.0
2. PEPERKAMP M (NL) — 296.4
3. CORNELL Nor (ES) — 245.9

Men's halfpipe:

1. LEE Jio (KR) — 320.0
2. Shojiro Otsubo (JP) — 263.1
3. HASLER Jonas (CH) — 217.9

The full results are linked from the European Cup events page.

A few things worth noting:

• Yura Murase's gold is one of three EC halfpipe golds Japan claimed this season. Murase is primarily known as a slopestyle/big air rider — she's the same Murase who took the Aspen Rev Tour slopestyle gold a few weeks earlier. Cross-discipline range is rare at this level.
• The men's podium had Korea/Japan/Switzerland, all three nations represented. The Netherlands and Spain only reached the women's podium this year.
• Margins are big. Murase's 360 vs. silver's 296 is a 64-point gap. Lee's 320 vs. silver's 263 is a 57-point gap. These were not photo finishes.

What this season tells us

A 4-event season with medals concentrated in 3 nations is a small sample, and we should be careful drawing big conclusions from it. But a few observations:

1. The halfpipe field at EC level is shallow this year. Only 13 women and 26 men competed at the Corvatsch finals. Half the size of typical Rev Tour halfpipe fields. Whether this is normal for a post-Olympic-buildup year (when athletes shift World Cup focus) or a structural shift in EC participation is worth watching.

1. Switzerland came home empty on golds. Three Swiss medals this season, all silver or bronze. For a country that historically dominates EC halfpipe, that's notable.

1. Japan and Korea make the EC trip pay off. Both countries are sending halfpipe athletes to Europe, and both are coming home with medals. The pattern holds across recent seasons too.

What's next

The 2026-27 European Cup calendar typically opens in late autumn or early winter. Post-Olympic-year roster shuffles will reshape both who competes and who's at peak form. Whether the four-stop compact halfpipe season is the new shape or this year was a one-off is a 2026-27 question.

For now: gold medals to ohashi, Murase, Lee, and one more, distributed across two stops in two weeks. A short season, but a clean record of where the riders are right now.