World Pro Ski Tour Aspen Pro Open - Wardle Conquers Little Nell on Home Snow as Forejtek Flips the Script on Frost

Sport has an appetite for symmetry, and the Aspen Pro Open by DNA Vibe delivered it in spectacular fashion on Sunday. The two racers denied titles by the narrowest of margins on Saturday came back to Little Nell 24 hours later and claimed the prizes that had slipped from their grasp — Galena Wardle ending a weekend of personal frustration with the most emotional win of her career on home snow, and Czech Republic veteran Filip Forejtek at last claiming the Aspen title he has been chasing for years, turning the tables on Germany's Roman Frost to close out the most absorbing WPST weekend in recent memory.

Results — Aspen Pro Open by DNA Vibe, Aspen Mountain, 8 March 2026

• Women: 1st Galena Wardle (USA) · 2nd Viveka Deck Stang (CAN/BC) · 3rd Kaitlyn Harsch (USA) · 4th Evelina Fredricsson (SWE)

• Men: 1st Filip Forejtek (CZE) · 2nd Christian Soevik (BRA) · 3rd Lucas Ellis (GBR) · 4th Hayden Dahl (USA)

Aspen's own Galena Wardle reacted with barely contained joy in the finish area after winning the women's final of the Aspen Pro Open on Sunday — the second and final day of the World Pro Ski Tour's return to Aspen Mountain. For those who know Wardle's story, the moment was layered with significance. A former member of the U.S. ski team, a University of Denver alumna, a local hero who has competed on this very run for years — she won on the mountain she grew up on, in front of the town that raised her, on International Women's Day. The script could not have been better written.

What made Wardle's Sunday triumph all the more striking was the manner in which Saturday had unfolded. Wardle had been the top overall seed going into Saturday's Colorado Open, yet lost to American Lexi Ornstein in the very first round of the opener. Top seed, first round exit — the kind of result that can rattle a competitor's confidence heading into the next day's draw, particularly on home snow with a home crowd watching and expecting.

Wardle did not let it rattle her. She returned on Sunday with controlled aggression through every bracket, reading Little Nell's sun-softened surface with the authority of someone who has skied it thousands of times, and advancing to the final with an authority that had the Aspen crowd growing louder with every passing round. In the final she edged out Viveka Deck Stang — runner-up for the second straight day — in a close, competitive match that had the base area humming.

Third place went to Vail's Kaitlyn Harsch, a former University of Colorado racer, with Sweden's Evelina Fredricsson fourth. Deck Stang's back-to-back silver performances across the two days represent a remarkable weekend for the British Columbia representative, who leaves Aspen as the most consistent women's performer of the entire race weekend. Fredricsson's fourth was the highest Sunday finish by a Scandinavian woman — and one of the more quietly impressive results of either day.

The men's story was one of reversal and redemption. Saturday had seen Frost — commanding, clinical, composure personified — defeat Forejtek in the Colorado Open final. Sunday, the Czech came back out with something to prove.

WPST regular Filip Forejtek of the Czech Republic took the men's win, with Christian Soevik settling for second, Ellis third, and New Hampshire's Hayden Dahl fourth. The 28-year-old Forejtek was a 2018 Olympian and former University of Colorado standout — a man who has orbited the top of the WPST podium for several seasons without being able to plant his flag there convincingly. On Sunday, he planted it emphatically, sweeping through the bracket with the patience and precision of a seasoned bracket racer, saving his best skiing for the final and producing the run that mattered most when the moment demanded it.

For Frost, two days and two finals means a weekend of mixed emotions — a title on Saturday, a final defeat on Sunday, and the knowledge that in Forejtek he has a rival who will not go quietly into any draw. Saturday's champion became Sunday's runner-up's most significant victim, and the Czech had the satisfaction of evening the weekend's accounts in the most direct way possible.

Soevik, a senior at the University of Denver, was a 2026 Winter Olympian representing Brazil, where he was born before his family moved to Norway. He took a DNF in the February 16 men's slalom at the Games. The Olympic disappointment in Bormio, where a DNF cut short what might have been a historic result for Brazilian ski racing, was still fresh when the Aspen weekend began. To bounce back to back-to-back podium finishes — third Saturday, second Sunday — is a statement of character as much as athleticism. Soevik leaves Aspen having reminded everyone, himself included, exactly what he is capable of.

Britain's Lucas Ellis secured third place for the second consecutive day, producing the most consistent WPST weekend performance of any non-American male racer across the full two days, and underlining what his Saturday final appearance had already suggested — that a British skier is now a genuine force on this circuit and not simply a novelty result.

Away from the racing itself, the weekend carried a significance that extended well beyond podium positions. DNA Vibe, the weekend's title sponsor and the WPST's official recovery and wellness partner, launched its SHINE Movement in spectacular fashion — committing to provide Jazz Band regenerative wearables to every athlete in the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club, and to every college and high school ski team across the United States, representing approximately 10,000 devices dedicated to performance and recovery.

The weekend featured music performances at the Aspen Art Museum, a '70s-themed disco dance party at the W Aspen, and the debut of DNA Vibe's newest wearable device, the Disco — an event programme that blurred the lines between elite sport, community celebration, and wellness advocacy in a way that felt genuinely new for alpine ski racing. The message from the WPST and its partners was clear: this is not simply a race tour. It is a festival, and it intends to grow.

For Forejtek, Soevik, Ellis, and Wardle, the next challenge awaits within the week. For Wardle in particular — Aspen champion, hometown winner, local hero — the next race begins with a confidence that no amount of seeding or bracket theory can manufacture. She found it the hard way on Sunday, losing first and winning last, in the town she calls home.