On Saturday, Park City Mountain Resort played host to the second stop of the 2012/13 US Freeskiing Grand Prix. While the first event—hosted at Copper Mountain, CO in December—featured both slopestyle and superpipe contests, the Park City event featured only a superpipe competition. A FIS Freestyle World Cup and AFP Platinum level event, the US Grand Prix awards competitors valuable World Cup points—a key piece of the “road to Sochi” puzzle—and AFP points as well. After an exciting final, David Wise topped the field on the men’s side, and Maddie Bowman took top honors among the women—both individuals coming off of superpipe wins at the 2013 X Games Aspen.
Wise wins Park City Grand Prix superpipe, USSA Network
Wise’s winning run consisted of a 720 reverse mute grab, switch double cork 1080 Japan, right double cork 1260 mute, left double 1260 mute and a lofty alley-oop 540 tail to finish. “Under the sun, it’s a lot easier to put down solid runs, and everybody did,” said Wise. “It was pretty heated, sitting down at the bottom and to having to hold on to my first run score and watching everyone do some of their best runs of the season, it was pretty nerve wracking. At the same time, that is the exciting part of this sport. I am just stoked and every contest for me is just building momentum into the next competition. I am looking forward to Sochi coming up next.”
Behind Wise on the podium was Aspen’s Torin Yater-Wallace, who finished second to Wise at the X Games Aspen, as well. Torin’s silver medal run included a right double cork 1260 mute, left 1080 tail, switch right 720 mute, alley-oop double flat 900 Japan and a double 900 Japan to close. “Consistency, I think is an important tool when you are competing,” said Torin. “You need to do your run a lot and know your tricks well so that you can land your run as many times as you need too, whenever you need to. The fact that I am finally building up some consistency makes me really happy, it’s a goal of mine. I am so happy with my results today, the pipe here is sick and I love Park City. It’s a super sunny day and I guess I am just trying to make the Olympics next year.”
Rounding out the podium was Frenchman Kevin Rolland, who finished fourth at the X Games. Kevin stomped a run of left double 1260 mute, double flair tail, flair 7 tail, switch right 720 mute and a double flair 1080 safety.
Bowman wins Park City Grand Prix superpipe, USSA Network
On the women’s side, it was Maddie Bowman who continued her winning ways—racking up her third straight win of the season (and fourth overall first place finish on the 2013 AFP World Tour); the most recent win—and biggest of her career—coming at X Games Aspen. Maddie’s winning run included a right 900, left 540 mute, straight air mute, left 900 tail, right 720 and switch left 540. “I was pretty tired coming out of X Games, but this weather brings out the best in everyone,” Maddie explained. “I was really excited to ski today and had a great time. I would like to think that showed in my skiing, although I think I could have skied a little bit cleaner… I kind of washed out a little bit on my 9, but I was able to hold it together. My whole family is here and it’s really nice to have their support. Next up we head to Sochi and I am super excited to check out Russia.” The win marked a sweep of the 2012/13 Grand Prix events for Maddie, as she took gold at Copper in December.
In second place was Japan’s Ayana Onozuka. Ayana’s run consisted of a big mute grab to start, alley-oop critical, left 540 safety, right 540 safety, left 720 safety and a switch right 540. Behind Ayana in the standings was Virginie Faivre of France, who tossed a mute grab, alley-oop mute, left 540 safety, right 540 opposite safety, air to fakie safety and switch left alley-oop 5 on her way to the bronze medal.
The FIS World up now heads to Sochi, Russia for the Olympic test event in the halfpipe; competition is scheduled to begin on February 16. This weekend, the FIS cancelled the slopestyle event in Sochi on account of low snow levels due to warm weather. Event organizers have indicated the slopestyle event may be rescheduled later in the season.
US Grand Prix at Park City men’s superpipe top 10
1. David Wise — 93.8
2. Torin Yater-Wallace — 93.6
3. Kevin Rolland — 93.0
4. Thomas Krief — 91.8
5. Aaron Blunck — 91.4
6. Mike Riddle — 89.6
7. Matt Margetts — 89.4
8. Simon Dumont — 88.4
9. Tucker Perkins — 87.8
10. Beau-James Wells — 82.6
US Grand Prix at Park City women’s superpipe top 10
1. Maddie Bowman — 85.2
2. Ayana Onozuka — 84.4
3. Virginie Faivre — 82.8
4. Anais Caradeux — 82.6
5. Ros Groenewoud — 82.2
6. Annalisa Drew — 80.8
7. Mirjam Jaeger — 78.8
8. Megan Gunning — 75.2
9. Tiril Sjåstad Christiansen — 67.8
10. Brita Sigourney — 67.0
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