All tournaments in the "TOYO TIRES FWT JAPAN SERIES 2023" concluded on February 25th.
At this point, a total of 14 athletes from "REGION 1," which oversees athletes from Europe, Oceania, and Asia, have qualified to compete in the FWT Challenger, which begins on March 4th. These athletes include those who recorded high scores in the domestic qualifiers and athletes who already qualified based on their performance last season.
*The event will also be streamed live on YouTube from 4:30 PM on March 4th (Japan time)
Of these, due to injuries or inability to adjust schedules, the following eight competitors will travel to Europe and take to the stage to compete for the right to compete in the 2024 FWT
SKI Men's
Katsuno Tenra Instagram : tenra_katsuno123Yamada
Yuhei Instagram : forgetekGen
Sasaki Instagram : gen_sasaki_skier
SKI Girls
Sasada Chisato Instagram : chisasukeke
Yui Ohno Instagram : yuipuep
SNOWBOARD Men's
Yoshida Asato Instagram : asato_yoshida
Toyoma Yusuke Instagram : yusuketoyoma
Rei Igarashi Instagram : rei.igarashi
Approximately 140 athletes are eligible to compete in the FWT Challenger, which will include the eight athletes mentioned above. This includes approximately 20 athletes who did not make it to the finals in the 2023 FWT and the top 40-60 athletes from each region's FWT Qualifier. A total of approximately 60-75 athletes will compete in these two segments
The FWT Challenger is held in two regions: Europe, Oceania, Asia, and North America. Japanese fighters will compete in the Europe, Oceania, Asia region. The tournament will be held according to the following schedule
March 4-8 | 2023 NENDAZ CHALLENGER, SWITZERLAND (Switzerland)
March 9-13 | 2023 JASNA CHALLENGER, SLOVAKIA (Slovakia)
March 16-22 | 2023 GURGL CHALLENGER, AUSTRIA (Austria)
After these three tournaments, the results of two of the three will be reflected in the rankings.
A total of 18 athletes from each region will be selected to compete in next season's Freeride World Tour 2024: four men's skiers, two women's skiers, two men's snowboarders, and one women's snowboarder.
A flowchart showing the process for participating in FWT24. The red circled areas are the stages where eight Japanese athletes will participate
With more Japanese riders than ever before seizing the opportunity, it will be interesting to see how the FWT Challenger competition turns out.
The tournament will be streamed live on the FWT Global official website and YouTube. Each rider is also actively sharing their progress on social media. Come support the riders' riding from far away in Japan!
Freeride World Tour official website https://www.freerideworldtour.com/
Freeride World Tour official YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@FISFreerideWorldTour
FWT JAPAN official website https://freerideworldtour.jp/
FWT JAPAN official Instagram https://www.instagram.com/freerideworldtour_jp/