Copper Mountain, CO – Despite snow and wind on Friday, Maddie Bowman displayed great athleticism with her left and right 900’s that landed her in first at the Visa U.S. Freeskiing Grand Prix. Canada’s Mike Riddle claimed victory for the men.
“I am really happy! My right 900 is a new trick, I learned it last year and I used it for the first time at the Dew Tour and so far it is working out for me,” said Bowman, of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., whose winning run consisted of a right 900 into a left 540 mute-grab, straight air with safety grab, left 900 to right 720 and switch 540. “It is an exciting time for our sport right now with the Olympics and the competition is stiff — I mean, look at Brita [Sigourney]. But I love competing with her and Roz [Groenwoud] and it’s fun. I am glad to be here and get this season started right.”
Sigourney, of Carmel, Calif., finished third behind Canada’s Groenwoud, of Calgary, Alberta, who bested her Dew Cup bronze medal from December.
“Roz (Groenwoud) was definitely affected by the slow speed of the pipe. She did a good job but just didn’t have as much speed into her last two tricks to get enough height,” explained Canadian coach Trennon Paynter.
Canada’s Mike Riddle dominated the men’s competition in soft and snowy conditions. After just squeaking into the finals in the qualification round, Riddle, of Spruce Grove, Alberta, quickly blew the competition away in finals, scoring 90.2 and 91.2 in the best-of-two run format.
“I didn’t land my runs clean in qualifications so I was very lucky to get into finals as the last guy, and so today in the conditions I was just trying to put down as clean a run as possible and it worked out for me,” said Riddle. “I’ve been doing this run a lot and so I’m really confident with it and I was able to execute today very smoothly which meant I could maintain speed.”
Colorado native and 16 year-old U.S. Rookie team member Aaron Blunck of Crested Butte beat tough competition and weather to take second in the men’s competition at his third FIS World Cup appearance. Teammate David Wise, of Reno, Nev., played it safe in the treacherous conditions and finished in third place.
“I was having a perfect run for my first run I was excited and I caught a snow snake and went down. It’s part of the game,” said Wise. “I put extra pressure on myself for my second run and had to scale back a bit — you scale back and that’s what puts you in third place. I still had a great day and I am very happy to be here to get my Olympic qualifying points started. ”
Friday’s competition was the first American stop for athletes to gain Olympic qualifying points and AFP Platinum level event points.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup
Visa U.S. Freeskiing Grand Prix – Copper Mountain, CO – Jan. 11, 2013
Skiing Halfpipe
Women
| Rank | Bib | Name | Year | Nation | Result | Points |
| 1 | 3 | BOWMAN Maddie | 1994 | USA | 84.6 | 1000.00 |
| 2 | 1 | GROENEWOUD Rosalind | 1989 | CAN | 79.2 | 800.00 |
| 3 | 6 | SIGOURNEY Brita | 1990 | USA | 79.00 | 600.00 |
| 4 | 4 | FAIVRE Virginie | 1982 | SUI | 78.4 | 500.00 |
| 5 | 12 | GUNNING Megan | 1992 | CAN | 75.00 | 450.00 |
| 6 | 5 | ONOZUKA Ayana | 1988 | JPN | 73.00 | 400.00 |
| 7 | 16 | DREW Annalisa | 1993 | USA | 71.8 | 360.00 |
| 8 | 39 | MARTINOD Marie | 1984 | FRA | 64.6 | 320.00 |
| 9 | 10 | JAEGER Mirjam | 1982 | SUI | 64.2 | 290.00 |
| 10 | 11 | AERTS Katrien | 1976 | BEL | 63.4 | 260.00 |
Men
| Rank | Bib | Name | Year | Nation | Result | Points |
| 1 | 6 | RIDDLE Mike | 1986 | CAN | 91.2 | 1000.00 |
| 2 | 27 | BLUNCK Aaron | 1996 | USA | 87.00 | 800.00 |
| 3 | 2 | WISE David | 1990 | USA | 83.6 | 600.00 |
| 4 | 16 | POLLET-VILLARD Joffrey | 1992 | FRA | 79.8 | 500.00 |
| 5 | 1 | KRIEF Thomas | 1993 | FRA | 77.8 | 450.00 |
| 6 | 28 | FERREIRA Alex | 1994 | USA | 73.6 | 400.00 |
| 7 | 41 | DUMONT Simon | 1986 | USA | 70.00 | 360.00 |
| 8 | 3 | ROLLAND Kevin | 1989 | FRA | 68.8 | 320.00 |
| 9 | 4 | VALENTIN Benoit | 1992 | FRA | 65.2 | 290.00 |
| 10 | 17 | MARGETTS Matt | 1988 | CAN | 54.6 | 260.00 |