Aspen – Olympic SuperPipe gold medalist Shaun White of Calsbad, Calif., resumes his competition schedule in the Winter X slopestyle event Saturday right where he left off last winter. After winning 11 consecutive contests in 2006, White qualified first in Friday’s elimination round with a top score of 92.33. Danny Davis of Highland, Mich., was second (90.00) and Andreas Wiig of Oslo, Norway, was third (88.66). Two-time Olympic superpipe silver medalist Danny Kass of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., qualified fifth (82.66), setting up the annual duel between the two most stylie snowboarders on the planet tomorrow in Aspen. – Scott Willoughby
Stage set for boardercross
After a drought-plagued winter overseas saw many of the season’s boardercross events cancelled, the stage is set in Aspen for the biggest event since snowboarding’s wildest competition discipline captivated the action sports world at the Turin Olympics in 2006. Paul Henri De La Rue and brother Xavier De La Rue of Saint Lary, France, finished first and fourth, respectively, among the men in Friday’s Snowboarder X qualifying competition, as Nick Baumgartner of Iron River, Mich., was the top American in the time trial, placing second. Six-time X Games gold medalist Shaun Palmer of Lake Tahoe, Calif., was fifth, just ahead of Olympic gold medalist Seth Wescott of Sugarloaf, Maine, in sixth. Local Olympian Jason Smith of Basalt made Saturday’s quarterfinals by placing tenth, followed by neighbors Ross Trulove of Carbondale and Cleve Johnson of Basalt in 16th and 17th places, respectively.
Among the women, Tanja Frieden of Thun, Switz., was the top qualifier, edging out two-time defending world champion and former Winter X gold medalist Lindsey Jacobellis of Vermont by three-quarters of a second in the qualifying run. Jordan Karlinski of Snowmass is the only local woman to advance to the finals, qualifying tenth. – Scott Willoughby
Bad crashes
Sweden’s Sanna Tidstrand who last April broke the world speed skiing record by skiing more than 150 mph crashed hard in her qualifying run of Skier X Friday. She broke two ribs and suffered a head injury. She was flown by helicopter to St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction, where her condition was not known. Combined with bad crashes by two other women in Skier X, Tidstrand’s potentially serious injuries revive the logistically-challenging argument that the women skiercross racers need a separate racecourse. – Jason Blevins
