The 2024 season ushered in a new era for Crankworx, with a women’s category added to the FMBA Slopestyle World Championship for the first time in the event’s history. The recently wrapped Innsbruck stop hints at just how much mountain biking, as a whole - and the athletes in particular - have to look forwards to because of it.
"This time a year ago, we couldn’t have even dreamed up the possibility of women being at CWX Slopestyle," says P1 finisher Robin Goomes. "So in such a small amount of time, my goals and career have taken a new direction, which excites me."
A dream no longer, Robin and her fellow femme freeriders have already, in just three World Tour Stops, taken the competition to a whole new level, leaving no doubt that they deserve their place on the international stage.
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Crankworx has been offering equal prize money for male and female competitors since 2015, but Slopestyle was one of the outstanding events where women still did not have a category to compete. In a statement released earlier this year, Crankworx Managing Director Darren Kinnaird called the move to add a women’s category in Slopestyle was “indicative of the level to which the sport has been elevated through years of development,” adding that the category would provide “equal opportunity access to the highest level of the sport featured across the Crankworx World Tour."
P3 Innsbruck athlete Shealen Reno says that, for her, it’s “a huge deal” to have a women’s category in Slopestyle at Crankworx. “Being part of the first women's Slopestyle Diamond events feels amazing because it shows that our hard work and skills are being recognized."
She said her goal, coming into the event, was "to master the course by the end of the first day of practice, allowing me to focus on tricking features." One of those tricks was a pendulum on the first dirt-to-dirt jump: "I struggled with it all week during practice and couldn't nail it until the second round on comp day. The jump was massive, with really high speeds leading into it."
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Robin, on the other hand, says she tries to come into the comp week with "no expectations," so that she can simply "enjoy the process and develop goals once I have familiarized myself with the course and conditions." In Innsbruck, for example, Robin says she found herself eyeing one feature in particular: "I’ve wanted to flip a step down for a while, and did it a couple of times in practice, so that felt massive to me."
"It makes me excited for the future," says Shealen of being up on the Innsbruck podium with Robin and P2 finisher, Alma Wiggberg . "Plus, it's awesome to think about how this will inspire more women to get into Slopestyle and push their limits.”
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Crankworx has been offering equal prize money for male and female competitors since 2015, but Slopestyle was one of the outstanding events where women still did not have a category to compete.
As advocates for women in freeride have been pointing out for years, access to high-level events is vital if femme folks in the sport hope to achieve equal support and opportunity with their male counterparts.
It takes incredible amounts of time, money and energy to compete at the level Crankworx demands; the recent labor dispute that had male riders sitting out the season’s first event in Rotorua proves just how much this is the case.
So while having a women's category in Slopestyle, says Shealen, is "a big step towards equality in the sport," it also casts her and her peers' achievements in that much more of a remarkable light. Even decades behind their male counterparts when it comes to industry investment, the women of Slopestyle are still showing up and going off, not letting a lack of blazed trail (in true freeride fashion) slow or shut them down.
The final stage in the 2024 Crankworx Slopestyle series will take place in Whistler, Canada, July 19-28; check back soon for more coverage and results.
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