McKinnon and Bowen team up on World Champs silvers

By Published On: January 16th, 2015Comments Off on McKinnon and Bowen team up on World Champs silvers

KREISCHBERG, Austria – Less than a month after landing on her first World Cup podium in Beijing, U.S. Ski Team aerialist Kiley McKinnon found herself with a World Championships silver medal in Kreischberg, Austria. McKinnon joined teammate Alex Bowen as the U.S. Freestyle Team swept silver across both genders for the team’s first medals since 2009.

Australia’s Laura Peel took gold while China’s Mengtau Xu won bronze in the women’s event.

McKinnon stayed true to her lean and clean style, advancing systematically through the rounds. Her silver medal jump was a full, double full – two flips with a twist on the second. While her degree of difficulty wasn’t the highest of the day, she skied each jump cleanly and came out with a medal.

“This is amazing,” she said in the finish. “I wasn’t really sure how it was going to go because I thought I would have to throw a new trick. But I was able to make it to the super-final without it.”

With a strong qualifying effort on Wednesday, McKinnon gained an advantage in being able to jump late in the first round. “Kiley’s been jumping great all week,” said aerials head coach Todd Ossian. “But there’s a lot of strategy in this new format. Fortunately Kiley qualified high and it put her in a position where she could watch other jumpers and see what the scores were.”

McKinnon took advantage of that strategy in the second of three rounds, going with her lowest degree of difficulty trick, a lay, full, and came out fifth in the semi-final with six advancing to the super-final. Her clean full, double full put her into the early lead until Peel matched her trick with a double full, full – edging into the lead by .35. Xu went for a triple and touched down, dropping her into third. Ashley Caldwell also went with a triple, but failed to land cleanly and finished just out of the medals.

Alex Bowen used the FIS Freestyle World Championships as a proving ground, landing a triple flip he had never done on snow and taking home a silver medal.

China’s Guangpu Qi took the gold in the men’s event with a massive 139.50 score on a quintuple-twisting triple, defending his 2013 World Championship title and partially avenging his fourth in Sochi. Bowen was second in a career best 121.27. Maxim Gustik of Belarus was third.

“This is totally unexpected,” said Bowen. My double full, full, full was the first one I’ve ever done on snow. It was the best jump of the day.”

It was a strong day for the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team with three men and two women qualifying into the three-heat finals. After nailing his triple flip, teammates Mike Rossi and Caldwell were the first to reach Bowen – hugging him hard in the finish, knowing that his jump had a great chance of holding up for a medal.

“I couldn’t have done it without the support of my teammates,” he said. “Without them and the coaches, it wouldn’t have been the same event for me.”

Bowen qualified fifth on Wednesday and nearly dropped out in the first of three finals heats, but snuck in at ninth. And it was a pivotal decision that worked out for him in the end as he decided to go full, full, full – not his highest degree of difficulty – opting to save his best for last.

“The guys’ degree of difficulty was so high in the first round, it was risky for any of the guys to do full, full, full and counting on other people to make a mistake,” said aerials head coach Todd Ossian. “But it ended up being a good move for him. He put himself in a position at the end to win.”

He made it into the super-final with a full, double full, full netting a 115 point score. He switched it up with his higher degree of difficulty triple in the super-final, landing it clean and knowing he had a shot. Only Qi was able to top him.

Moguls get underway on Sunday at the World Championships. Aerialists are back in action at the Putnam Lake Placid Freestyle Cup Jan. 30-31.

Release courtesy of USSA

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About the Author: C.J. Feehan

Christine J. Feehan is a USSA Level 300 coach who spent more than a decade training athletes at U.S. ski academies - Burke, Sugar Bowl, and Killington - before serving as Editor in Chief at Ski Racing Media through 2017. She worked for the FIS on the World Cup tour for three years and then settled into her current home in Oslo, Norway.