At the 25th U.S. Open last weekend in Stratton, Vt., the year’s most prestigious snowboarding event, Shaun White and Kelly Clark revealed their Olympic mettle. Each gold medalist won a halfpipe competition, making Clark, a Vermont native, the first woman to win the event three times. Clark was trailed by Aspen’s Gretchen Bleiler in her all-too-familiar second-place spot. Australian Torah Bright, who won this year’s X Games superpipe contest as well as last year’s Open halfpipe, took third.
The men’s halfpipe finals featured the heaviest hitters in the pipe, with Danny Davis, X Games champion and Breck rider Steve Fisher and Finland’s Antti Autti pursuing a red-hot White. But White, determined to end his less- than-golden history at the U.S. Open halfpipe, won gold with back-to-back 1080s in his first two hits into back-to-back 9s. Davis took second and Finland upstart Markus Malin was third, capping the best season in his young career.
Jackson Hole’s Travis Rice and Tahoe teen Jamie Anderson took the Open’s slopestyle comp, earning $20,000 each plus $5,000 each for throwing the best trick of the showdown. X Games slopestyle champion Anderson, 16, was followed closely by Bright and Briton Jenny Jones. It was Rice’s first win in the Open. He was trailed by Finnish rider Janne Korpi. White, last year’s slopestyle champion, took third.
White and Bright took the Burton Global Open Series titles. Each walked away with a new Volvo and a check for $100,000 – the largest single payout in the history of snowboarding.
In the past eight months, riders have traversed the globe accumulating series points toward the championship title. Bright’s win in the pipe and sixth-place finish at the Nippon Open last month in Japan, in addition to her second in pipe and third in slopestyle at the U.S. Open, delivered the title to her. White’s first in pipe and second in slopestyle at the Nippon Open and first in pipe and third in slopestyle at the U.S. Open were enough for him to claim the series title. His win in the pipe at the Open also delivered to him the coveted crown for the Ticket to Ride World Tour, an annual collection of the world’s biggest snowboarding contests.
SLED DOG RACING
Coloradan is 32nd in Iditarod
Of the three Colorado mushers to race in the 35th Iditarod this month, only one crossed the finish line. Bill Pinkham, the 47-year-old owner of Kuka Kennels in Glenwood Springs, finished 32nd in the prestigious sled dog race.
It was Pinkham’s best finish in the five times he has crossed beneath the famed arch finish line in Nome, Alaska. Pinkham took 11 days, 5 hours, 35 minutes, 40 seconds to race the 1,150- mile course, ranked as the world’s longest sled dog race. Race officials reported that Buena Vista’s Lachlan Clarke dropped out after 224 miles because of a torn ligament in his ankle. Butch Austin of Fruita dropped out after 194 miles because of frostbite on his nose.
FREESTYLE SKIING
Discoe siblings shine
Brothers Joe and Jimmy Discoe of Ridgway represented the Telluride Ski & Snowboard Club with podium finishes at the FIS Freestyle Junior World Championships in Airolo, Switzerland, last weekend, capping a nine-medal American run to capture the Holder Cup for the overall top nation at the event. Joe, 19, reached the podium first with a bronze medal in moguls as Jimmy, 17, finished fourth in a four-man American sweep Sunday. Jimmy picked up his first junior worlds medal a day later, a silver in dual moguls.
SNOWBOARDING
State’s finest off to Austria
Colorado riders will have a strong presence at the FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships, April 11-13 in Bad Gastein, Austria, as eight of the 27 Americans named to the team are from the Centennial State. Snowboardcross specialists Conor Meyer of Basalt and Mick Dierdorff of Steamboat Springs will represent the men’s team at the event, while Kim Krahulec of Silverthorne and Jordan Karlinski of Aspen will race for the women. Kevan Beal of Erie will compete in alpine events for the U.S. men.
Jon Casson and Adam Casanova of the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club will be joined by Nathan Park from Ski & Snowboard Club Vail in coaching duties during the competition.
DISABLED SKIING
Victor takes World Cup title
After three days of racing at the disabled World Cup finals in Arte Therme, Italy, sit-skier Stephani Victor of Park City, Utah, wrapped up the overall World Cup title and crystal globes in slalom and giant slalom. Colorado athletes had success at the event, though no podium finishes.
Brad Washburn of Littleton was the top U.S. finisher in the men’s slalom, placing sixth in the standing division, and Nick Catanzarite of Winter Park was the top U.S. sit-skier in ninth. Hannah Pennington of Denver was 12th in the women’s standing division of the slalom event and Washburn led U.S. men at 11th. Sit-skier Carl Burnett of Winter Park was fifth in men’s super-G.
