Olsson and Grabner play meet & beat

To round off the season two greats of winter sports hosted a very personal closing event. The ambition of each participant at the Jon Olsson Super Sessions and at the SG (Sigi Grabner) Invitational was focused on one thing above all: winning the duel with the host.

To take part in a contest that runs exactly like the competition you always wanted to take part in. This wish has come true for X Games winner Jon Olsson since 2005, and the Austrian snowboard world champion Sigi Grabner since 2007. At the end of the season, both issue very personal invitations, which have little to do with conventional world cup events and a great deal to do with the personal character and lifestyle of their initiators. Yet the contests weren’t an all-out wish for Olsson und Grabner: the strong competition knew how to hinder the victory of the respective hosts in both events.

From Invitational to Super Sessions

At the Jon Olsson Super Sessions, held from March 26 to April 6 in Åre, Sweden, the team surrounding US freeskier Sammy Carlson secured the overall victory. After three Jon Olsson Invitational events, whose goal used to be the ‘search for the perfect jump,’ Olsson came up with a new contest format idea for the Super Session. Ten teams, comprising of one freeskier, a photographer and a filmer, had to produce a three-minute video and a two-minute slideshow.

By helicopter to award show

But not even the amazing clip made by the Jon Olsson Team, which showed its protagonist doing a double flip from all sides, convinced the jury and the 2200-strong audience. The Carlson team, which consisted of Gravity Games winner Sammy Carlson, photographer Nate Abbot and cameraman Dominique Janiszewski, wowed the audience with footage of a trick from a paraglider’ perspective. The award ceremony held in the Mix Megapol Arena was delivered by Olsson in a style fit for Hollywood. While the other teams rolled up to the red carpet in stretch limos, Olsson’s landed at the entrance in a helicopter.

Mixed teams at the SG Invitational

Sigi Grabner’s very personal dream of a perfect contest looked a bit different. He invited 32 current and former snowboard pros to his SG Invitational from April 4 to 6, to Ischgl, Austria. These competed in mixed amateur-pro teams of four. The group each consisted of a pro and a ‘legend’ – for example, world champion Christine Rauter, overall world cup winner Benjamin Karl or last year’s bronze medal winner from Nagano, Gitti Köck – a rookie and an amateur. And here the team of the event’s patron was also beaten. The consolation: alongside the German world champion runner up Hansi Rösch and the amateurs Stefan Baumeister and Nevin Galmarini, one driver from Sigi’s SG pro team was also from the winners’ club – the six-time world cup podium finisher Roland Fischnaller.