The FIS Snowboard World Cup has come a long way. For 20 years, FIS has organised a world-wide contest tour for snowboarders, which has not only grown in size over the past decades but also stood abreast of changes in the sport and its events.

It all started in 1994 when Zell am See/Kaprun (AUT) hosted the first-ever World Cup event with a parallel slalom. 18 ladies and 48 men competed with Karine Ruby (FRA) and Mathias Behounek (GER) earning their spots in the history books as first World Cup winners.

Since then, 1,254 competitions have been organised in 24 countries. The largest number of events (192) have been staged in Canada while Austria (190) and Italy (176) underlined their passion for Snowboard sport as well. Austria (16) and Italy (14) have featured the most World Cup venues to date.

In total, 113 different hosts around the world have played a part in contributing to the growth and acceptance of the FIS Snowboard World Cup. The venues which organised the most FIS Snowboard World Cup competitions are from Canada: Whistler (61) and Stoneham (58) lead the ranking ahead of Bad Gastein (AUT, 48).

In its series called '20 years of snowboarding' FIS Snowboard will take a look back on several aspects of the FIS Snowboard World Cup throughout the upcoming winter season.

Source: the official FIS site