Tess Ledeux

The youngest-ever freeski world champion is French skier Tess Ledeux, one of the slopestyle scene’s most dependable performers. Ledeux was always likely to excel on the slopes given that her cousin is halfpipe legend Kevin Rolland, but few could have anticipated how quickly and how far she would advance.

Ledeux learned to ski at the age of two and joined the neighbourhood freestyle club by the time she was nine at her home resort in La Plagne, France. Ledeux won slopestyle gold in Sierra Nevada as a 15-year-old in 2016–17 thanks to her massive rotations and technical rail work, which also helped her win X Games silver in Aspen and Hafjell and make history as the youngest-ever freestyle ski world champion. She also concluded the season ranked second by the AFP in slopestyle.

Ledeux won titles at the French Championships, the FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup in Switzerland, and the X Games in Aspen in 2018. A second gold medal at the X Games, this time in Big Air, and first place at the FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup in Aspen marked even more success the following year. A slopestyle victory at the Font-Romeu World Cup in France, a second Big Air gold medal at the X Games, and first place at the FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup in Austria all represented strong starts for the 2020–21 season. Ledeux then won her first Slopestyle International Ski Federation (FIS) Freestyle Ski World Cup title in Silvaplana, Switzerland, to cap off a remarkable campaign. Then, in 2022, she finished second in Beijing at China’s Freeski Big Air competition.