The Wanaka 19-year-old claimed his second podium of the season with a silver medal at the third stop of the FIS halfpipe world cup series in Calgary yesterday.
"I’m so stoked", Melville Ives said.
"I can’t believe it — it’s been an incredible start to the world cup season."
Athletes were tested by challenging conditions at Calgary Olympic Park with flat light reducing visibility and temperatures sitting about -10° impacting speed in the pipe.
Despite that, Melville Ives put down a career-first trick in competition, landing a switch left double corked 1440 safety grab on the second hit of his second finals run.
"The conditions were pretty tricky today but managed to put my run down and land a trick I’d never done before in competition (the switch 1440), so I am pretty hyped to tick that one off."
The reigning world champion topped qualification from his heat, earning the advantage of dropping second to last in both finals runs. He made his mark in run one, delivering a near-flawless top-to-bottom performance to take the early lead.
With several athletes unable to put down clean first runs, the intensity ramped up for the second run of finals.
American star Nick Goepper responded with a highly technical run, posting a score of 94.80 to move into the lead.
Showing trademark composure, Melville Ives focused on his skiing rather than scores and was determined to raise the bar.
He attacked the pipe with intent, and put down his career first 1440, looking for every ounce of amplitude. Unfortunately, a couple of small bobbles on two of his landings saw his second run fall just short of improving on his opening score, which remained his best score of the day.
Melville Ives finished second with Goepper claiming gold and American team-mate Birk Irving completing the podium in third.
Wānaka athlete Ben Harrington also impressed, advancing to the finals and securing his best result of the season with an eighth-place finish.
The halfpipe world cup continues next weekend in Aspen, where New Zealand’s slopestyle athletes will return to competition as the winter season gathers momentum with just 33 days until the opening ceremony of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
— Queenstown skier Alice Robinson failed to finish the first run of a giant slalom, on a course set by co-coach Nils Coberger, for the second race in a row.
Robinson, who won two successive giant slaloms and a super G in November and December and led the world cup standings last month, slipped to third overall in the discipline.
Swiss skier Camille Rast, the reigning slalom world champion, claimed her third world cup win in Slovenia.
— Allied Media/Reuters
