Copper Mountain, CO – Keri Herman’s back-to-back switch tricks and clean landings sealed the deal for the Breckenridge, Colo. resident’s second straight World Cup ski slopestyle win at the Visa U.S. Freeskiing Grand Prix at Copper Mountain on Saturday. Great Britain’s James Woods took the men’s title.

“I am so happy!” said an elated Herman, whose winning run in the chilly below-zero conditions consisted of a lipslide first rail, bus stop to switch, switch right 720 safety-grab, switch right 540 Japan-grab and right 540 tail-grab. “At Dew Tour in December I finished dead last and this is great! It’s so cool to have won both FIS World Cup’s so far; it’s a real honor to represent the USA at the top of the podium.

“I tried so hard to grab well in my run and it worked out,” Herman added. “The field of competition was tough and I am lucky the score from my first run held, because I fell on my second run. This is such a good confidence booster heading into X Games.”

Eighteen-year-old Canadian Dara Howell of Huntsville, Ontario, took second and Australia’s Anna Segal third for the women’s podium. American women took four of the top nine with Ashley Battersby (Park City, Utah) sixth, Jamie Crane-Mauzy (Park City) eighth and U.S.Freeskiing rookie Jess Breda (Marshfield, Mass.) ninth at just her second World Cup.

“I know I’ve been training well and I know that the tricks I have are all tricks I know how to do, so when it came to the contest I just thought of it as another training run,” said the second-place finisher Howell. “I mean, I was still really nervous and I still had all that going on, but I just tried to have fun and just ski.”

On the men’s side, Australia’s Russell Henshaw took second and Canadian Alex Beauliu-Marchand third behind Woods. Americans took four of the top eight spots including Bobby Brown (Breckenridge, Colo.) fourth, Nick Goepper (Lawrenceburg, Ind.) fifth, Alex Schlopy (Park City, Utah) seventh and Sammy Carlson (Hood River, Ore.) eighth.

Beauliu-Marchand was also rewarded by the judges for performing the best trick of the day, a switch double cork 9 with a truck driver grab in which the skier takes off from the jump backwards and then performs two flips and two-and-a-half rotations while holding each ski at the binding, “like you’re holding the steering wheel of a big truck.”

“I’m super happy, I mean I wasn’t expecting anything, I was just going out there to ski and have fun and it worked out for me so I couldn’t be happier,” said Beauliu-Marchand. “And, I’m super stoked that I might be have a chance to go to the Olympics, hopefully I’ll get another podium.”

The event also doubled as the U.S. Slopestyle Championship with Brown and Herman taking titles as top Americans. Athletes gained valuable FIS Olympic qualifying points in addition to AFP Platinum level points.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Freestyle World Cup
Sprint U.S. Grand Prix – Copper Mountain, CO – Jan. 12, 2013
Slopestyle

Women

Men