Winter X Games 14 – Women’s Results

Over and out. Winter X Games 14 has wrapped. Four days in Aspen delivered five-peats, double three-peats, and back-to-back golds. Read on to find out how the women fared.

Friday, Jan. 29th – Women’s Skiing Superpipe

A deserving  Jen Hudak won Women’s SuperPipe Gold. In her sixth Winter X, the 23 year old Utah local spent the last three years pushing progressively harder toward the top of the podium. Last year she finished second by a microscopic margin and Winter X 14 turned out to be her year.

1. Jen Hudak
2. Megan Gunning
3. Roz Groenewoud
4. Mirjam Jaeger
5. Anais Caradeux
6. Sarah Burke

Saturday, Jan. 30 -  Women’s Snowboard X

In the Snowboard X Lindsey Jacobellis defended her title, but not without a lot of heat from Helene Olafsen. Watch for this rivalry to be another one that will  be continued in Vancouver.

1. Lindsey Jacobellis
2. Helene Olafsen
3.  Joanie Anderson
4. Maria Ramberger
5. Alexandra Jekova
6. Emilie Aubry

Saturday, Jan. 30 – Women’s Snowboard Superpipe

As expected, the Women’s Superpipe ended up being  a competition between Gretchen Bleiler and Kelly Clark .  In her final turn, Clark needed to best Bleiler’s 96.66; she dropped and stomped her entire run, but it was too close to call.  Gretchen probably had more technical tricks, but Kelly had a lot of amplitude and tricks, too.  In the end,  Bleiler took the top prize, becoming the only woman to win four times. Hannah Teter took third but her score was 26 points shy of Bleiler’s.

1. Gretchen Bleiler
2. Kelly Clark
3. Hannah Teter
4. Soko Yamaoka
5. Ellery Hollingsworth
6. Elena Hight

Sunday, Jan 31 – Women’s Slopestyle

Jenny Jones won the Women’s Slopestyle final for the second year in a row. She out-shredded Jamie Anderson and Janna Meyen-Weatherby, neither of whom were at Winter X last year.

It was a progressive day in the park. Janna Meyen-Weatherby was incredibly close to nailing a cab nine, which would’ve been a Winter X first for women. Unfortunately, the landing ended up earning her bronze behind Jamie Anderson’s silver but she certainly lit a fire during the comp.

1. Jenny Jones
2. Jamie Anderson
3. Janna Meyen-Weatherby
4. Kjersti Oestgaard Buass
5. Hana Beaman
6. Cheryl Maas

Women’s Skier X

History was made when France’s Ophelie David took home her fourth straight Women’s Skier X gold medal, making her the first skier — male or female — of any Winter X skiing discipline to four-peat. The 33-year-old mother of two passed two Canadian women — Kelsey Serwa, 20, and Ashleigh McIvor, 26 — wjp finished second and third respectively, halfway through the course and outlasted them to the finish to claim a record fourth gold medal.

1. Ophelie David
2. Kelsey Serwa
3. Ashleigh McIvor
4. Fanny Smith
5. Marte Gjefsen
6. Aleisha Cline

Oh, and if you hadn’t already guessed, Shaun White took home gold in the Men’s Superpipe final.

SNB: Road to Vancouver

The path to Vancouver is paved in U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix halfpipes for  athletes with an eye on Olympic medals. Earlier this month, the U.S. Snowboarding team Olympic qualifiers kicked off at Copper Mountain in Colorado with riders debuting the high caliber tricks they’ve honed over the last year of intense training.

And so it begins. Olympic dreams will be given hope or will be  squashed during the 2010 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix series.

A total of five Olympic qualification competitions will take place at Copper Mountain, Mammoth Mountain with a final stop at Park City Mountain Resort, the venue for the 2002 Olympics, where the 2010 Olympic halfpipe team will be announced. These events serve as the pathway to Vancouver  Games for one of Winter Games marquee events.

In reality, the Grand Prix is really the Olympics before the Olympics.  In previous Olympic years, the competition has been more fierce at the Grand Prix qualifiers than at the Olympics themselves.  Like in previous years, these comps will be pressure-filled scenes filled with intense drama. Three stops, five comps, all with 22-foot halfpipes serving as the stage from which Olympic dreams will be fulfilled or crushed.

On the women’s side, riders like 18-year-old Ellery Hollingsworth, winner of the U.S. Open’s “Rookie of the Year” award,  along with Clair Bidez  and Elena Hight   are  on the radar to surprise the crowd with their versatile styles. Each hopes to join the ranks of three former Olympic medalists – Hannah Teter, Gretchen Bleiler and Kelly Clark in a quest for gold.

Who ends up on that team is still a huge question as only four slots will be doled out to both the men and women. That’s not a lot of spots and the talent pool is deep.  Stay tuned.

Olympic athletes to sport vintage-inspired style

The Countdown to the Olympics includes a lot of important  preparations, not the least of which is what the athletes are going to wear at the Games.

As he has done before, Ralph Lauren will have a hand in outfitting the athletes. His  affinity for Americana will be on full display  at the Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia — complete with a patriotic palette of red, white and blue, along with stars-and-stripes flags and, of course, polo ponies.

Long-sleeve T-shirts with big bold graphics printed on the chest are part of the Olympic Village wardrobe, as well as white warm-up jackets with red and blue stripes down the sleeves and old-school alpine ski sweaters decorated with reindeer.

The closing-ceremony parade outfit includes a mostly red and blue shawl-collar sweater with antique buttons, a newsboy cap, a plaid shirt for the men, and a navy ribbed turtleneck for the women.

“We took a lot of inspiration from the 1930s games, reaching into the heyday of the Olympics and bringing to a more modern sensibility,” said David Lauren, the company’s senior vice president of advertising, marketing and communications.

During an Olympic fashion segment on the TODAY show, freestyle skiers Sho Kashima and Emily Cook modeled the closing ceremony outfits, including the vintage-inspired newsboy caps, cardigans, alpine boots and fleece pants.

Ralph Laureh, who dressed the American athletes for the summer games two years ago, has signed on with the U.S. Olympic Committee through 2012 in London to provide ceremonial clothes as well as recreational looks. It’s also creating the outfits for the Paralympic teams.

While the winter athletes will sport Ralph Lauren for the open/closing ceremonies,  Nike will rock the podium. The sportswear giant, who has also signed on as an official supplier for the winter games, will provide apparel and footwear for Olympians — for the competition, on the medal stand, and for wearing casually in the Olympic village. Focusing on incorporating sustainable “considered design,” Nike’s design team researched the variety of winter sports conditions the athletes are likely to encounter, from icy storms to heavy snow, and created fashionable modern looks that will also be available to the public at Niketown stores.

Nike unveiled the medal stand looks — blue waterproof down jackets — on short track speed skater J.R. Celski and snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler during the Olympic fashion segment on TODAY. The jackets featured 100 percent recycled fabric, 800-fill down insulation, and a unique faded fabric print that is customized for every single jacket.

With Nike and Ralph Lauren teaming up with the USOC on the fashion front, at least the U.S. athletes will sport a winning look.

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Get ready for Winter X Games Europe

ESPN announced the first wave of athletes invited to the Winter X Games Europe March 10-12, 2010. The event will be the first Winter X Games held outside the United States.

Invited X Games athletes include:

SuperPipe Women

Torah Bright (AUS)
Gretchen Bleiler (USA)
Ellery Hollingsworth (USA)

Slopestyle Women

Jenny Jones (GBR)
Jamie Anderson (USA)
Janna Meyen-Weatherby (USA)
Cheryl Maas (NED)
Sarka Pancochova (CZE)

The event will bring together eight different competitions over three days, including Ski and Snowboard SuperPipe and Slopestyle for men and women as well as a Snowmobile demonstration.

Watch brand new All Women’s Snowboarding Film “STANCE” – Full video online now!

You know you want to live vicariously through these Pretty Tough gals. Watch the highly anticipated all-women’s film project STANCE in right here.

STANCE FILM from Jmills ENT. Jeremy Miller on Vimeo.

Featuring: Gretchen Bleiler, Hana Beaman, Kimmy Fasani, Lisa Filzmoser, Jenny Jones, Torah Bright, Raewyn Reid, and Molly Aguirre.

Go to stancemovie.com to download the whole film for FREE.

Director, D.P., Editor: Jeremy Miller
Producer: Stan Evans
Motion, Assistant Editor: Ian Rigby
Additional Cinematography: Justin Turkowski, Ian Rigby

Dinner Impossible: X Food at the X Games

What do cooking and and the Winter X Games have in common?

Tonight it’s a show called “Dinner Impossible” courtesy of the Food Network.  Host Robert Irvine serves stunningly creative dishes both for intimate gatherings and for huge crowds, all without warning and at a moment’s notice. In January, the producers sent their crew and chef Robert to the hills of beautiful Aspen, Colo. as the Winter X Games 13 were underway.

At Buttermilk Mountain Robert’s mission was to cook for 200 Extreme Athletes. Working in extreme outdoor conditions, he was whisked away to the grocery store for all his ingredients and had just 7 hours to make his most Extreme Menu ever.

Olympic Snowboarder and local Aspenite, Gretchen Bleiler,  jumped in with part of the menu asking for some extreme cookies. Chef Robert also had the help of a couple sous chefs you may recognize: BMX Champion Kevin Robinson – and ESPN’s very own Dana Jacobson – who apparently ate something so good and nutritious off the menu that gave her great energy and poise as she hosted ESPN’s X Center that night.

Even cooler than the Food Network showing up to the Winter X Games, is the premiere episode featuring your fave action sports stars that kicks off the series tonight, Wednesday, April 8th at 10 p.m. ET.

What was in that entree that made Shaun White win Gold? Or how much sugar was in the extreme dessert that made Levi Lavallee attempt a double backflip on a snowmobile? Watch tonight and find out.

Sample recipes include:

• Cheesy Soup
• Extremely Potent Chocolate Espresso Drink
• Fruity Tuna and Halibut
• Macadamia Nut and Yogurt Crusted Salmon
• Rocky Mountain Oyster Stew
• Spicy Red Curry Chicken and Rice
• Spicy Warm Pineapple Watermelon Salad
• Sweet and Sour Ski Pole Pork

(h/t to Fuel TV)

Evolution of the action sports athlete

A couple of interesting articles today demonstrate just how far action sports have come. 

First, comes Forbes with its list of the highest-paid action sports stars.  Huh? A couple years ago mentioning Forbes and action sports in the same sentence would be unthinkable.

Shaun White may be the Tiger Woods of today’s action sports stars but others are starting to get noticed by a broader audience, and that means bigger paychecks, thanks to rich sponsorship deals.

Not surprisingly, the top 10 action sports earners in 2008 were all male. White may be the top earner among the current crop of action sports stars, but the highest-paid guy is still Tony Hawk, the godfather of action sports. Hawk retired from competitive skatingboarding in 1999 at the age of 31, but he has built a thriving business that earned him $12 million last year.

Top 10 Acton Sports Earners
1. Tony Hawk (skateboard) – $12 million
2. Shaun White (snowboard) - $9 million
3. Ryan Sheckler (skateboard) - $5 million
4. Travis Pastrana (tie) (moto) – $3 million
4. Kelly Slater (tie) (surf) – $3 million
6. Laird Hamilton (surf) – $2.5 million
7. Paul Rodriguez (skateboard) – $2 million
8. Danny Kass (tie) (snowboard) – $1 million
8. Dave Mirra (tie) (moto) – $1 million
8. Travis Rice (tie) (moto) – $1 million

Top female snowboarders like Torah Bright, Gretchen Bleiler and Hannah Teter make as much as $750,000 annually, but fell short Forbes’ $1 million cut off.

One thing is certain. Because these athletes stuck to what the love no matter what anybody said to deter them from their passion, some are actually making big bucks. Now if only we could create more parity between the guys and the girls.  X Games finally leveled the prize money but sponsors need to show the girls some love as well.

The other interesting article I came across today was an LA Times piece about drug testing action sports athletes.  A stepped-up effort by the global drug police runs counter to snowboarding’s long-cherished lifestyle and culture and with the Winter Olympics just a year away, the IOC’s anti-doping officials are tracking down riders for random tests. 

Says 2002 halfpipe gold medalist Kelly Clark, “We’re not at the gym, we’re on the mountain eight hours a day. It’s very challenging for us because the rules are not adapted to our culture.”

The drug-testing protocol applies to all potential Olympic athletes, not just snowboarders. But other athletes are accustomed to being tested regularly because they compete in sanctioned events such as the World Cup and world championships.

None of the top U.S. halfpipe riders compete regularly on the World Cup and only some compete on the FIS-sanctioned Grand Prix circuit. Comps like X Games and Dew Tour aren’t FIS events and aren’t subject to drug testing.

Snowboarders, with their deep-seeded anti-establishment roots, never were comfortable with authority but as the sport evolves and becomes more mainstream, it comes under more scrutiny.  Looks like there are always trade-offs. The question is, will riders adapt?

SNB: U.S. women sweep pipe in Italy

The women of U.S. Snowboarding blew the competition out of the water Saturday as they swept the podium of a World Cup in Bardonecchia, Italy. In the fourth Halfpipe contest of the 2009 LG Snowboard FIS World Cup, Kelly Clark came in first followed by teammates Hannah Teter and Gretchen Blieler in second and third, respectively.  

“For me personally it’s a good feeling to win where I was defeated three years ago,” Clark said. “Hannah was riding very strong but I just did my run as I wanted it. I’m glad that I won this great event and that the U.S. took one, two and three.”

Teter had taken the lead due to a “Backside Air”, “Back-to-back 540’s”, a “Frontside 720” and a “Cab 540” Clark came back having the right answer in her ninth World Cup event throwing in a “Frontside Air”, a “Backside 540” as well as “Back-to-back 720’s” and a “Frontside 540” to conclude her run.

Clark just missed the podium at the same venue at the 2006 Torino Games when she placed fourth trying to defend her gold medal. While not the Olympics, Clark must surely feel some redemption her win this weekend. It was Clark’s third career World Cup victory and second in Bardonecchia, the first came in 2005.

Teter notched her seventh career World Cup podium, while Blieler grabbed her tenth.

The American domination didn’t stop at the podium. American women took five of the top 15 spots with Elena Hight in eighth and Ellery Hollingsworth in 12th.

“Bardonecchia has the most snow they’ve had in about 50 years and we got here and the pipe was challenging. We had just come from some great competitions and we showed up to a smaller pipe and challenging conditions,” U.S. snowboarding halfpipe head coach, Mike Jankowski said. “We knew there was only one way to go and that was up. So, we said every day it’s going to get better. We pushed our way through semi finals and got our way through to finals.”

The pipers now head to the 2010 Olympic venue at Cypress Mountain, B.C. for a World Cup competition and some valuable experience. “We just take it one pipe at a time and we’re definitely not getting ahead of ourselves,” Jankowski said. “As long as the pipe is in good shape, whether it’s a Revolution Tour, a Grand Prix or the Olympics, we go there to win and I expect our athletes to push hard for the win.”

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2009 LG SNOWBOARD FIS WORLD CUP
Bardonecchia, Italy – Feb. 7, 2009
Halfpipe

Women
1. Kelly Clark, Mt. Snow, VT, 45.1
2. Hannah Teter, Belmont, VT, 43.2
3. Gretchen Bleiler, Aspen, CO, 39.4
4. Holly Crawford, Australia, 36.3
5. Kjersti Buaas, Norway, 34.9

Winter X 13 Results – Women’s Ski Snowboard

It was lucky 13 for these ladies:

Women’s SNB X: Lindsey Jacobellis ran away with her second straight snowboarder X crown, no one even near her at the finish. In a light snow, she streaked to a 25-yard victory with Helene Olafsen taking second and Sandra Frei finishing third.

Women’s SNB: Slopestyle: A jubilant Jenny Jones could hardly believe what she had just accomplished in the Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle. The pride of Great Britain trailed Spencer O’Brien going into the final run and knew she had to do something big to steal the top spot. And Jones did just that, sticking a front-side 720 off the money booter final ramp to steal the victory and the gold medal from O’Brien, 90.00 to 87.66.

Slopestyle SNB Official Results  – Jan. 24, 2009
1. Jenny Jones  Bristol, Great Britain 90.00
2. Spencer O’Brien  Whistler, B.C., Canada 87.66
3. Megan Ginter  Seattle, Wash. 82.00

Women’s Slopestyle Ski: Anna Segal led off the Women’s Slopestyle Skiing contest Saturday at Winter X Games 13 in Aspen with a score of 85.00. Little did she know at the time, but that would be the best score of the day as she battled the course and the elements taking the gold in the inaugural event.  In the same event, Sarah Burke came up short on her landing during the last jump and was whisked to an awaiting ambulance. Diagnosis: Compression fracture to part of her lower back.

Slopestyle Ski Official Results  – Jan. 24, 2009
1. Anna Segal  Melbourne, Australia 85.00
2. Grete Eliassen Salt Lake City, Utah 79.00
3. Kaya Turski Montreal, QB, Canada 70.00

Women’s SNB Superpipe: Throughout Winter X 13, the Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe belonged to Australian rider Torah Bright.  In the elimination round Bright set a Winter X Games scoring record of 97.66, and although she was not able to equal that mark, her score of 91.33, which reflected an awesome McTwist, was enough to secure her the gold medal on Friday over silver medalist Kelly Clark. It was the second X Games gold of Bright’s career, following silver in 2008. Last year’s winner, Aspen native Gretchen Bleiler, had to withdraw from the competition after falling hard in her second of three runs.

SNB Superpipe Official Results -  Jan. 23, 2009
1. Torah Bright  Cooma, Australia 91.33
2. Kelly Clark  Mount Snow, Vt. 88.33
3. Hannah Teter  Belmont, Vt. 83.00

Women’s Ski Superpipe: A wet, heavy snow fell throughout the day Friday on Buttermilk Mountain, slowing down most of the SuperPipe competitors, but not Sarah Burke as she grabbed her third consecutive gold medal in the Women’s Skiing SuperPipe final at Winter X Games 13.

Ski Superpipe Official Results  – January 23, 2009
1. Sarah Burke  Whistler, BC, Canada 93.33
2. Jen Hudak  Aspen, Colo. 92.66
3. Jess Cumming  Wilton, Conn. 84.00

Kelly Clarks wins Mt. Snow Dew Tour Snowboarding Superpipe

January 11, 2009 – The top of the podium shone as Olympic gold medalist and hometown hero Kelly Clark won the Snowboarding Superpipe event at the Winter Dew Tour Sunday at Vermont’s Mount Snow ski resort.

Gretchen Bleiler took the prior event in Breckenridge, four points ahead of Clark, setting the stage for round two. This time it was all Clark as the Vermont local took the crown, besting the scores of Hannah Teter in second and Ellery Hollingsworth in third.

Vermont is home to many world-class riders, including the winning trio who had a bit of a homecourt advantage over the weekend.  

“I’m always looking to do well at the events. A podium is great, but first place is even better. I’m just happy for today,” Clark said. “I had a great run and it was good to be home in front of my family and friends.”

Clark, who was second at the last stop of the Dew Tour, weaved a frontside air, backside 540, frontside 540, cab 360, frontside 540 backside air through the halfpipe for the win in front of her home crowd.

“So many of my friends and family came out and it was great,” Clark said. “Everyone gets to see why I am gone all the time and what it is that I’m actually doing.”

Clark now heads to Laax, Switzerland, Jan. 12-16 for the Burton European Open before she returns to the states for the X Games.

“I’ve got one more event before the X Games but I am hoping to get some more time in the halfpipe and get ready,” Clark said.

And of course the last stop of the Dew Tour will be the Toyota Championship at Northstar-at-Tahoe in Truckee, CA, Feb. 11-22.

Mount Snow results

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