Dhawornvej Second in Laax Open
Hydro Flask U.S. Snowboard Team’s Lily Dhawornvej earned her first career World Cup podium on the final day of the 2026 Laax Open with a second place overall finish in the women’s slopestyle snowboard final.
Windy conditions on the Switzerland's Crap Sogn Gion glacier plagued the final day of competition at the storied European World Cup and forced a delayed start time for the women’s snowboard slopestyle final. Dhawornvej watched as teammates and Olympians Dusty Henricksen and Sean FitzSimons dropped into the Snowpark Laax course and battled adverse weather conditions to end the day in ninth and 11th place, respectively. Watching the men’s contest forced event organizers to hold a riders meeting to decide the fate of the women’s competition but a 50/50 split ultimately put the contest in the hands of the judges. After brief deliberation, the contest was a go and more importantly, a decision Dhawornvej favored.
As the fifth overall qualifier, Dhawornvej dropped in the middle of a 10 person field and laced together a heater, going 50-50 boardslide to 50-50 back one out on the top rail section, followed by a switch back five mute, front seven indy, back seven stalefish and a steezy tamedog nose grab on the knuckle feature. Her score of 71.18 held strong throughout the remainder of competition as veteran competitors, like Japan’s Reira Iwabuchi and Mari Fukada, struggled with the day’s conditions.
The often stoic Dhawornvej was overcome with emotions in the finish when she realized she had locked in her first World Cup podium.
“I’m literally crying happy tears right now,” the 17 year old said. “It was a battle with the conditions today but I’m so happy to put one down. And to do it in Laax? I’m just so proud of myself.”
Japan’s Kokomo Murase took first overall and Austria’s Anna Gasser finished third to round out the top three. The men’s podium saw France’s Romain Allemand in first, Japan’s Yuto Kimura in second and China’s Yiming Su in third.
