The next Winter Olympics will be held in Milano-Cortina in February 2026, but snowboarders need to start scoring points now on the FIS World Cup circuit in order to secure their spot.
The U.S. Olympics website recently published an outline of the qualifications riders will need. And while the Olympic Quota Allocation List won’t be published until January 19, 2026, it will rank the athletes using their World Cup points and FIS Snowboard World Championship points from 2025. The FIS World Championships will be held in Switzerland from March 17 to March 30, 2025.
To qualify for parallel giant slalom and snowboard cross, an athlete must have a minimum of 100 FIS points and place in the top 30 of at least one FIS World Cup event, or the 2025 World Championships.
Athletes competing in big air, halfpipe, and slopestyle must have a minimum of 50 FIS points, and at least one top 30 finish. The final chance to qualify for slopestyle and big air will be in Akureyri, Iceland on April 26 and 27, 2025.
For both the men and women, there will be 31 spots allocated in both parallel giant slalom and snowboard cross. Halfpipe will host 24 athletes, and snowboard slopestyle and big air will get 29 spots for both men’s and women’s competitions.
Italy is guaranteed an athlete in each discipline for both men’s and women’s events. No country is permitted to send more than 13 athletes to the games per gender.
There will also be three mixed team snowboard cross events that feature one athlete from the men’s side and another from the women's. Each country is eligible to submit up to three mixed snowboard cross teams.
In 2022, Chloe Kim took home a gold medal in the halfpipe for the women, and Lindsey Jacobellis brought home two: one in women’s snowboard cross, and one as a member of the mixed snowboard cross team with Nick Baumgartner. Julia Marino won silver in women’s slopestyle.
Chinese rider Su Yiming won the gold for men’s big air, while Norway’s Mons Roisland won silver and Canadian Max Parrot won bronze. Yiming also took home a silver medal in men’s slopestyle. Australian Anna Gasser won big air gold for the women, while New Zealander Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, one of two medals she won at the games.
Related: After Over a Decade of Street Riding, Kennedi Deck is Pro for K2