US women sweep halfpipe podium in first Olympic qualifier

By Published On: December 13th, 2013Comments Off on US women sweep halfpipe podium in first Olympic qualifier
U.S. women's podium sweep (Alli Sports/U.S. Freeskiing)

U.S. women’s podium sweep (Alli Sports/U.S. Freeskiing)

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. – Lake Tahoe’s Maddie Bowman, Washington’s Angeli VanLaanen, and California’s Brita Sigourney set a high point standard with their U.S. sweep of the women’s halfpipe skiing final at the Dew Tour iON Mountain Championships, the first-ever Olympic qualification series for halfpipe skiing.

“It feels good. It definitely relieves a lot of stress. These times can be pretty stressful, so I’m happy to be proactive. It’s the first event of the season that I’ve done finals in and it’s great; and for it to be the first Olympic qualifier is even more is awesome. I’m just on top of the clouds right now,” said Bowman. “The girls really killed it and I’m so happy to be on the podium with Angeli and Brita. It’s just great. I love them.”

X Games gold medalist Bowman elevated the level of competition for the first event of the qualification series and put herself in a strong position to be selected to the first U.S. Olympic Freeskiing Team. Her run consisted of a straight-air Japan, right 900, left 540 mute, straight-air mute, cork 900, right 720 and switch 540. Next, the women head to Copper Mountain for the Visa U.S. Grand Prix Dec. 20-21, the second Olympic qualifier. To qualify for the Olympics, freeskiing athletes must secure two top-three results, with tiebreakers going to the athlete with the best individual result.

In her second and final run, U.S. athlete VanLaanen laid down an ambitious run and knocked Ayana Onozuka of Japan out of her third-place position to claim the second place on the podium, surpassing Sigourney. VanLaanen’s second run secured the podium sweep for the USA.

“I’m ecstatic to share the podium with Maddie and Brita today. We’ve all worked really hard this season and it’s phenomenal to see it pay off,” said Van Laanen. “I’m definitely living in the moment but Grand Prix is really close and it’s always in the back of my mind. I’m excited to try and get a few more things ready and give it all I can.”

The men’s halfpipe skiing final will air Saturday on NBCSN at 11:00 p.m. MST and the men’s slopestyle final airs live Sunday on NBC at 10:00 a.m. MST.

Release courtesy of USSA

Women’s Freeski Superpipe Final results

Rank Athlete Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Maddie Bowman 89.60 15.00 89.60
2 Angeli VanLaanen 85.60 89.00 89.00
3 Brita Sigourney 55.60 88.20 88.20
4 Ayana Onozuka 83.60 86.60 86.60
5 Anais Caradeux 80.00 74.00 80.00
6 Devin Logan 75.00 47.40 75.00
7 Rowan Cheshire 64.40 23.40 64.40
8 Annalisa Drew 29.40 38.00 38.00

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About the Author: SR Staff Report