Kreischberg, Austria –Squaw Valley, Calif.’s Scotty Bahrke won his first FIS Freestyle Aerials World Cup on Friday night in Kreischberg. This was Bahrke’s first podium of the season and the second of his World Cup career. Laura Peel of Australia was the women’s winner as no U.S. of Canadian women competed.
It was a strong day for U.S. men’s aerialists as Dylan Ferguson, of Amesbury, Mass., finished third, earning his second podium of the season. It was the first U.S. men’s double podium result since the late Jeret “Speedy” Peterson and Joe Pack both landed on the podium at Mt. Buller ski resort in Australia in March of 2005.
“It’s amazing, I don’t know if its completely sunk in yet,” Bahrke said of his first U.S. men’s World Cup aerials win since Ryan St. Onge in Feb. 2009 in Moscow, Russia. “I couldn’t be more excited. It’s pretty epic to stand on the top, especially with teammate Dylan (Ferguson). He ended up third place. To have us both come out here and stand on the podium together was pretty amazing.”
Bahrke qualified for the finals in ninth and the Super Finals in first place. His winning jump was a back full double full full (a quadruple twisting triple flip). Ferguson used the same trick as Bahrke in the Super Finals.
“It was awesome. I landed myself in the top position going into Super Finals. I was able to watch what everyone else did and just ended up having a clean jump,” said Bahrke, the younger brother of 2002 Winter Olympic moguls silver medalist, Shannon Bahrke. “I did a full double full full, because it was the largest trick I had in my bag. I knew I needed to do that if I wanted to win.”
Olivier Rochon, the lone Canadian entrant in Friday night’s competition and the current men’s World Cup aerials leader, finished 14th after touching a hand down on the landing of his qualification jump, a quadruple twisting triple backflip.
“Of course I’m disappointed that I missed my landing and put my hand down,” said Rochon, “But I keep the yellow bib (as the overall FIS men’s aerial leader) and I hope to have a better result next week in Belarus.”
The FIS Freestyle World Cup aerials circuit now moves to Minsk, Belarus this Saturday.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Freestyle World Cup
Kreischberg, Austria – Feb. 17, 2012
Aerials
Men:
| Rank | Bib | Name | Year | Nation | Result | Points |
| 1 | 16 | BAHRKE Scotty | 1985 | USA | 118.59 | 1000.00 |
| 2 | 11 | GUSTIK Maxim | 1988 | BLR | 117.73 | 800.00 |
| 3 | 6 | FERGUSON Dylan | 1988 | USA | 97.35 | 600.00 |
| 4 | 26 | ZHOU Hang | 1993 | CHN | 94.43 | 500.00 |
| 5 | 8 | MEDULICH Petr | 1991 | RUS | 110.84 | 450.00 |
| 6 | 12 | KRAVCHUK Stanislav | 1978 | UKR | 99.12 | 400.00 |
| 7 | 13 | KUSHNIR Anton | 1984 | BLR | 98.01 | 360.00 |
| 8 | 15 | DASHINSKI Dmitri | 1977 | BLR | 97.57 | 320.00 |
| 9 | 4 | LAMBERT Thomas | 1984 | SUI | 94.47 | 290.00 |
| 10 | 25 | DOBRANSKY Roman | 1992 | CZE | 92.17 | 260.00 |
Women:
| Rank | Bib | Name | Year | Nation | Result | Points |
| 1 | 6 | PEEL Laura | 1989 | AUS | 75.69 | 1000.00 |
| 2 | 3 | VOLKOVA Olga | 1986 | UKR | 74.36 | 800.00 |
| 3 | 18 | YANG Yu | 1991 | CHN | 70.67 | 600.00 |
| 4 | 10 | DIDENKO Nadiya | 1986 | UKR | 65.21 | 500.00 |
| 5 | 13 | HUSKOVA Hanna | 1992 | BLR | 82.05 | 450.00 |
| 6 | 22 | XU Sicun | 1992 | CHN | 81.9 | 400.00 |
| 7 | 11 | SCOTT Danielle | 1990 | AUS | 81.49 | 360.00 |
| 8 | 9 | WELLS Samantha | 1989 | AUS | 80.33 | 320.00 |
| 9 | 15 | ZHANG Xin | 1985 | CHN | 79.48 | 290.00 |
| 10 | 8 | POLYUK Olga | 1987 | UKR | 78.75 | 260.00 |