Kaya Turksi
She's done it again. In fact, all three have done it again.
Kaya Turski has repeated her gold medal performance, Keri Herman her silver medal performance and Grete Eliassen her bronze. Even 4th place Ashley Battersby, repeated her near-podium performance. A carbon copy of the 2010 women's slopestyle podium, but this year's wasn't a runaway victory for Turski like her last.
L-R: Keri Herman, Kaya Turski, Grete Eliassen
Kaya, the only lady to switch up the joystick rail, put together an impressive jump line that included a 360, 540 and switch 720. Turski, whose first run was her best, held on throughout two more runs of 10 women for the win. "I'm obviously ecstatic and really relieved," Turski said. "I put a lot of pressure on myself coming into this event. The girls definitely put on a good show and gave me a run for my money and I'm just happy I pulled through."
Keri Herman, who was sitting in last pace going into her last run, picked up the tempo to win, relying on her 360, 540 and switch 720, ending just shy of that gold medal. The always bubbly Herman was even more so when she uprooted Eliassen for the silver medal spot.
Kim Lamarre on the Tree-Way rainbow.
Grete Eliassen, who has her third straight slopestyle medal, got better as the day went on. The only female to hit the lollipop jib, her rightside 360, 720, 360 and 900 combo held on long enough for her to grab yet another X Games medal. Ashley Battersby, who at one point was sitting in medal contention, also put down a 900, unfortunately not in the run that was scored the highest.
Kim Lamarre was sending huge and stylish zero spins of the money boater, taking 5th. Jess Warll threw down the most ambitious jump line — cork 720, flatpsin 360 and rodeo 540 — but her somewhat vanilla rail section held her back. But sixth place isn't bad for the first timer at X Games.
Keri Herman.
Anna Segal couldn't quite find her groove today, crashing a couple times. But she put that rodeo 540 of hers to good use, ending up in 7ht place. Meg Olenick also zero spun the final hit, but her crashed pair of 720s on runs two and three kept her score low enough for 8th place.
North Face pipe and park qualifier Maude Raymond showcased her style on the rails section, but didn't quite have the munition to take on Turski and her podium pals. And Devin Logan, the only female competing in both slope and pipe, rounded out the top 10. Logan couldn't quite put down a super clean run this afternoon, but she might have been pre-occupied with the fact that she has to ski in Women's Superpipe finals tonight.
Keri Herman — rightside 540
With this win, Turksi cements herself as the top slopestyle competitor in the game. But on a bigger scale, what does this do to AFP Slopestyle rankings? This is Kaya's first event of the year, so where will she stand? Will Devin Logan keep the top spot? Or will one of the other 10 ladies be the new leader? Visit the AFP's Current Rankings site to find out.
2. Keri Herman — 93.33
3. Grete Eliassen — 93.00
4. Ashley Battersby — 92.00
5. Kim Lamarre — 91.33
6. Jessica Warll — 90.66
7. Anna Segal — 80.33
8. Meg Olenick — 76.33
9. Maude Raymond — 75.00
10. Devin Logan — 73.00