The men's snowboard slopestyle podium celebrates at the 2020 Laax Open World Cup.Laemmerhirt / Ruggli / Laax Open
Laemmerhirt / Ruggli / Laax Open

Sébastien Toutant claims slopestyle gold at first World Cup in two years

On Friday morning, Sébastien Toutant won gold in men’s slopestyle at the Laax Open World Cup. This marked his first World Cup competition and win since winning gold at PyeongChang 2018.

The two-time X-Games gold medallist posted a score of 87.25 in his second run of Friday’s final to finish atop the podium in Switzerland.

The L’Assomption, Quebec native came second in his qualifying heat on Monday to advance to Wednesday’s semifinal, where he posted the following run (scored at 81.63, good for third in the semifinal) en route to a berth in final.

It was as good of a return as Toutant, affectionately known as Seb Toots, could have hoped for. Following his Big Air Olympic Gold in PyeongChang 2018, the Olympic champion took a leave of absence from competition.

Rounding out the podium were Americans Redmond Gerard and Justus Henkes, who took home silver and bronze, respectively.

READLaframboise and McMorris secure Snowboard World Cup double podium, Voigt earns silver

Canadians Michael Ciccarelli (13th), Francis Jobin (22nd), and Nicolas Laframboise (48th) also competed. Ciccarelli, narrowly missed a berth in the finals, falling short of 12th in the semifinal by 0.65 points.

Competition continues on Saturday with men’s and women’s halfpipe.