Bloom and Reed podium for U.S. in World Cup freestyle openers

Bloom and Reed podium for U.S. in World Cup freestyle openers{mosimage}Welcome back, Jeremy Bloom! The multi-talented package — World Cup and world moguls champ and All-America football player at Colorado — returned to the World Cup with the season opener … and promptly made his way to the podium.

“Oh man, I’m still hurting from football,” Bloom said with a grin after finishing second December 6 in Ruka, Finland, but he couldn’t hide the joy in being back on skis.

Aerials resumed its schedule the night before, after a three-month gap following its openers in Australia last September. Belarussian Dmitri Dashinski and Olympic, world and defending World Cup champ Alisa Camplin of Australia won the aerials; Kate Reed gave the U.S. a podium in third place. And then it was time for the mogul skiers.

Olympic champs Kari Traa and Janne Lahtela were the first-event winners but adding to U.S. pleasure was Hannah Kearney, who got her first podium as a 17-year-old high school senior from New Hampshire. She finished third in the moguls at Ruka, despite an icy course and winds that ripped to 50 mph or more.

“I think being from the East was a help,” she said with her trademark modesty. “I just tried to stand up my first run and do it again in my second run,” she said. Eight U.S. skiers made it into finals.

Suzuki FIS Freestyle World Cup
Ruka Finland / December 6 and 7, 2003

Men’s Aerials
(12 made finals)
1. Dmitri Dashinski (BLR) 201.10
2. Kyle Nissen (CAN) 196.84
3. Stanislav Kravchuk (UKR) 195.78
4. Ales Valenta (CZE) 193.82
5. Eric Bergoust (USA) 193.29
6. Steve Mischl (CAN) 192.22
7. Renato Ulrich (SUI) 188.14
8. Martin Walti (SUI) 187.96
9. Ryan Blais (CAN) 187.68
10. Timofei Slivets (BLR) 186.73
11. Denis Osipov (BLR) 181.57
12. Ryan St. Onge (USA) 177.32
Other North Americans
18. Jean Bean (CAN)
28. Cord Spero (CAN)
29. Warren Shouldice (CAN)
32. Jeret Peterson (USA)

Women’s Aerials
(12 made aerials)
1. Alisa Camplin (AUS) 191.65
2. Nina Li (CHN) 186.79
3. Kate Reed (USA) 159.03
4. Elizabeth Gardner (AUS) 156.74
5. Shanshan Zao (CHN) 153.95
6. Evelyne Leu (SUI) 152.88
7. Deidra Dionne (CAN) 150.63
8. Anna Belikh (RUS) 147.26
9. Lili Liu (CHN) 146.32
10. Anna Zukal (RUS) 145.62
11. Manuela Mueller (SUI) 142.89
12. Amber Peterson (CAN) 137.18
Other north Americans
16. Veronika Bauer (CAN)

Men’s Moguls
(12 made finals)
1. Jane Lahtela (FIN) 24.90
2. Jeremy Bloom (USA) 24.57
3. Mikko Ronkkainen (FIN) 24.21
4. David Babic (USA) 23.94
5. P-A Rousseau (CAN) 23.59
6. Vitali Glushenko (RUS) 23.08
7. Luke Westerlund (USA) 22.64+
8. Sami Mustonen (FIN) 22.64
9. Arild Gaarden Hansen (NOR) 22.49
10. Lauri Lassila (FIN) 22.24
11. Nobuyuki Nishi (JPN) 19.84
12. Travis Cabral (USA) 17.12
Other North Americans
13. Chris Wong (CAN)
18. Jim Schiman (CAN)
24. Toby Dawson (USA)
33. Nate Roberts (USA)
34. Ryan Riley (USA)
42= Marc-Andre Moreau (CAN)
42= Jean Francois Therrien (CAN)

Women’s Moguls
(12 made finals)
1. Kari Traa (NOR) 25.43
2. Jennifer Heil (CAN) 24.72
3. Hannah Kearney (USA) 23.73
4. Stephanie St. Pierre, (CAN) 23.45
5. Shannon Bahrke (USA) 21.15
6. Laurel Shanley (USA) 20.87
7. Ljudmila Dymchenko (RUS) 20.78
8. Jenny Kittstein (GER) 20.51
9. Aiko Uemura (JPN) 20.38
10. Nikola Sudova (CZE) 19.42
11. Emiko Torito (USA) 14.69
12. Miyuki Hatanaka (JPN) 12.88
Other North Americans
18. Elisa Kurylowicz (CAN)
19. Shelly Robertson (USA)
21. Jillian Vogtli (USA)
25. Jennifer Simm (CAN)