Campbell Melville Ives executed arguably the best run of his career this morning to achieve his first World Cup podium, bringing home second place at the Laax Open, Switzerland in the Snowboard Halfpipe final.
As rider after rider fell, Melville Ives kept his composure. His first near-perfect run ending in disappointment as he failed to land his final trick, but in the second run he brought it home, scoring a 91.00. The score took him to the top of the leaderboard until the last rider of the competition when four-times Olympian Scotty James landed an epic run scoring 98.75.
Melville Ives advanced to the finals at Laax after a strong qualifying performance scoring 84.00 to take fourth in his heat. The heart-stopping final saw Melville-Ives execute a spectacular run with five tricks - a cab triple cork, frontside triple cork, backside double cork, double alley-oop rodeo and switch alley-oop rodeo - impressing the judges with huge amplitude and high difficulty.
Melville Ives is the first athlete to land back to back triples in competition, making this an astonishing achievement.
A stoked Melville Ives said after the competition: “First run I made a mistake early in the run, hit a wrong edge and ran out of pipe at the end. Second run I adjusted the trick into a single.
“I felt pretty calm and relaxed. I’ve been riding that pipe for so many years so just relaxed into the feeling of when it’s warm and sunny there, and that helped with the nerves.”
Head Coach Tom Willmott said Melville Ives had been targeting the run for a long period of time and attempted different versions but not pieced them all together until today.
Cam’s coach Mitch Brown said the coaching team were incredibly proud. “It’s the first time he’s landed that sequence and the first time an athlete has landed back to back triples in a competition so we’re super proud of him, and he executed it with so much style and swagger.
“He’s been working so hard over a long period of time and was incredibly brave in firm night-time conditions to send it as hard as he did.”
Melville Ives competes next at the X-Games in Aspen in the build-up to the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
Photo Credit: David Tributsch
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