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Snowboard Progression Explosion
Jan 25, 2010 / 07:03:53 PM
Progression Before Your Eyes - The US Grand Prix Halfpipe Series
Is Shaun White, the Ginger Ninja stoppable? Not likely this year. The 2010 Olympic gold medal is all but around his neck.
Park City, Utah held the final two halfpipe events of the US Grand Prix series over the weekend, this series will go down in history as having more action and drama than any script Hollywood could come up with. When a spot on the Winter Olympic team is up for grabs, snowboarding is all about progression and pressure.
The US Grand Prix halfpipe series consists of 5 events over three USA resorts; Copper Mountain in Colorado, Mammoth Mountain in California and Park City in Utah. The American competitors spend the series battling it out for their place on the USA halfpipe team, four men's and four women's positions only are available. While the Americans battle it out between themselves, other nations use the Grand Prix's to work on their halfpipe riding while competing against some of the best in the world. Australian riders Holly Crawford and Nathan Johnston showed during this series that they could mix it with the best, Holly achieved a 3rd place at the Mammoth event and successfully made the finals at all the other Grand Prix events she entered. Nathan made a regular appearance in the finals of all the events he entered; unfortunately he sustained an ankle injury last week that has now put his Olympic spot in jeopardy. Australia's other great halfpipe hope at the games, Torah Bright sat out most of the Grand Prix events, instead choosing to focus on her own private training for the 2010 games.
The Park City halfpipe was in perfect condition for the night finals at the second event. Halfpipes are now a massive 22 feet high from the flat bottom, compared to only 18 feet 4 years ago.
Before their eyes, regular followers of the Grand Prix series have been witnessing the progression of halfpipe riding to levels never seen before at this competition. The first event of the Grand Prix series took place in December at Copper Mountain, this event revealed how much training had been done by the competitors in the off season. It was clear form the start that two riders were going to set this pace, in the women's event it was Kelly Clark showing the field that you not only need to be able to go huge, you must also be able to spin back to back tricks if you want to land a place on the podium. In the men's event at Copper Mountain it was Shaun White and his back to back double corks that set the standard, there was one other rider Louie Vito who had these two tricks in his repertoire, and all the other competitors in the men's event realised at this point that they needed to learn to double dip if they want to have a chance.
VIDEO: Shaun White has invented a new Double cork (McTwist 1260) that has made him 'untouchable' in the Halfpipe.
Proof that the level of riding had progressed immensely during this series was seen at the Mammoth event, in just under a month the standard went from needing back to back double corks, to needing three double corks in your run to be able to stand on top of the podium. In a run many have described as one of the best halfpipe runs in history, Danny Davis raised the bar up a notch with a run that started with a double cork cab 10, then a front 9, crail air, double cork front 10 and finished off with a switch double back rodeo and a score of 49.2 out of 50. Danny was up for American Olympic selection going into the Park City event; unfortunately he suffered a back injury while celebrating his victory at the Winter Dew event in Utah and is out for the rest of the season. With this level of riding it is not a surprise that many riders sustained injuries while pushing their limits, possible medal contender American Kevin Pearce is still slowly recovering from a major head injury he sustained while training for the Grand Prix series.
VIDEO: Danny Davis' Ground Breaking Run at Mammoth mountain. He is the only rider to beat Shaun White this year, but is now out of the Olympics due to a late night shennanigans that went wrong and put him in Hospital.
VIDEO: The Final Grand Prix Event Highlights from Park City Last weekend. Video Care Of TWSNOW.com
After the two Mammoth events it was obvious that Americans Kelly Clark and Shaun White had both secured their spots at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Going into the American only Park City event it was now a race for the remaining positions on the American halfpipe team with a number of riders in contention. Gretchen Bleiler and Hannah Teter had been pushing Kelly Clark the whole series, and after the first event of the Park City stop on Friday night, these two riders had booked their tickets to Vancouver having done enough to secure their place on the team. Coming into the Saturday final it was all about that fourth place on the team, with Elena Hight and Ellery Hollindsworth neck and neck. Ellery fell on both her runs and finished in 6th with Elena unofficially (the official announcement is Monday) securing her spot with a 4th place, and in doing so reunited the American team that competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Kelly Clark still dominated the Saturday final, using the event to perfect her Olympic run with the amplitude on her sevens and nines rivaling that of men, Kelly showed why she is favourite for the gold in just under a month.
In the men's event it was much the same story as the women's, after Friday's night event Louie Vito and Scotty Lago knew they were joining Shaun White on the men's halfpipe team, and the fourth and final position was still up for grabs coming into the Saturday final. Shaun dominated the event unleashing his new trick the double mctwist 1260 on both the Friday and Saturday night finals, which is the third double cork in his run. Like Kelly, Shaun has a run that has the potential to win him gold in Vancouver, including frontside double cork 10, switch double cork 10, front 5 and the double mctwist 1260, this run scored Shaun 49.5 out of a possible 50 on Saturday night, 0.5 off perfect, so every pipe run between now and the games Shaun will be trying to perfect this run.
The fourth and final position on the men's team ended up being a 3 way tie after the Saturday event between JJThomas, Luke Mitrani and Greg Bretz; all have a third, a fourth and a fifth-place finish for the series. In the end Greg Bretz was awarded the fourth place on the USA team aftre the coaching staff were asked to split the tie.
All the riders who so far make up the USA halfpipe team are the competitors setting the standard of halfpipe riding that the rest of the world needs to rise to if they hope to stop a USA clean sweep come the halfpipe event at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Words: Paul ColbyThe US Olympic Women's Snowboard Team is:
1-Kelly Clark
2-Gretchen Bleiler
3-Hannah Teter
4-Elena Hight
The US Olympic Men's Snowboard Team is:
1-Shaun White
2-Louie Vito
3-Scotty Lago
4-Greg Bretz
tags: transfer, olympics, feature, features, photo, photos, grand, prix, us, olympic, team, park, city, shaun, white, 2010, featureone
