Park City, UT – Local teen Alex Schlopy won gold Thursday in the inaugural FIS World Freestyle Ski Championships slopestyle competition held in Park City. Schlopy was joined on the podium by Sammy Carlson, of Hood River, Ore., who earned silver and bronze medalist Russ Henshaw of Australia. Breckenridge, Colo.’s Keri Herman finished with bronze to lead the U.S. women, finishing behind gold medalist Anna Segal of Austria and X Games slopestyle champion, Kaya Turski of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.nSchlopy, who turned 19 years old less than a week ago, joins Segal as the first ever slopestyle World Champions. His victory Thursday comes on the heels of the 2011 Winter X Games big air event, where he also won gold.
Thursday’s slopestyle competition was held at Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR). PCMR has become a mecca for both professional and aspiring freeskiers as one of the nation’s most noted park and halfpipe resorts after being the site of halfpipe snowboarding in the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
“Being able to do well in my hometown is the best thing I can hope for,” said Schlopy. “I was so excited for this big event.”
Schlopy’s winning run’s rail sequence started with a 270 disaster on the down flat down, frontside 450 out of the flat rail to gap, blind 450 out of the up rail, switch on, 360 off of the butter box, leftside 900, switch 1260, double cork 1260.
Carlson, whose career includes multiple Winter X Games podium finishes with slopestyle gold in 2011, finished in second, the same position as his qualifying.
“It went well today, I had a lot of fun,” said the ever exuberant Carlson. “I wanted to come out here and put on a good show for everyone, as this is a new thing for FIS. They don’t get to see too many slopestyle competitions.”
Also making the men’s finals in slopestyle’s World Championship debut were LJ Strenio of Salt Lake City in sixth, and Gus Kenworthy from Telluride, Colo., in 10th. No Canadian men advanced to the final.
Women’s silver medalist Turski is a 22-year-old former freestyle rollerblader who turned to skiing about six years ago. “I’m very happy, I landed my run and I skied how I wanted to ski,” she said. “It’s an honor to be part of the first ever World Championships for slopestyle and I hope we put on a good show and I hope that the IOC is stoked on us and that we’ll go forward to the Olympics.”
Herman’s bronze Thursday backed up her second in the 2011 Winter X Games and has put her firmly amongst the top level women freestyle skiers. She has been on the verge of breaking out since winning the Mount Snow Open at Mount Snow, Vt., in 2008.
“I stepped up my rails from yesterday,” said Herman of her performance. “I’m just supper psyched that I stomped a run and it was my best skiing.”
Competing in the slopestyle finals with Herman were Devin Logan of West Dover, Vt., who finished fifth, Park City’s own Ashley Battersby in sixth and Megan Olenick, of Carbondale, Colo., ninth. Turski’s Canadian teammate, Kim LaMarre of Lac Beauport, Quebec, finished fourth.
Inclusion of slopestyle in the World Championships is seen as foreshadowing for possible inclusion of the sport in the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. This is the final event before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) meets to decide the issue, and a decision is expected in April. International Ski Federation (FIS) Secretary General Sarah Lewis said that FIS remains “optimistic” about both slopestyle and halfpipe’s inclusion to the Games.
IOC Slopestyle and Halfpipe Observer Walter Siebert commented that he found the Park City event “very well organized” and explained that one of the key focuses for the IOC is on the judging format for the new disciplines. He acknowledged that the IOC does like objectively won sports, sports that rely on time or distance to determine results, but said that does not count out judged sports.
“The IOC has quite a lot of judged sports and I think over the past 15 years (International Federations) have improved tremendously when it comes to judging sports and I think we will see less and less controversies during the Games and the World Championships as we go forward,” Siebert said. “But it is true that the IOC looks closely to how the sports are judged because we want to be sure that the field of play is fair for everybody.”
OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS World Freestyle Ski Championships
Park City Mountain Resort, Park City, UT – Feb. 3, 2011
Slopestyle
Men
Gold: Alex Schlopy, Park City, UT, 41.8
Silver: Sammy Carlson, Hood River, OR, 41.5
Bronze: Russ Henshaw, Australia, 41.2
Women
Gold: Anna Segal, Australia, 43.4
Silver: Kaya Turski, Canada, 41.7
Bronze: Keri Herman, Breckenridge, CO, 41.0