PARK CITY, UT (Feb. 28, 2015) – With fans crowded along the 22-foot superpipe at Park City Mountain Resort, slopestyle Olympic silver medalists Gus Kenworthy (Telluride, CO) proved his prowess in the pipe on Saturday, taking the win at the Visa U.S. Freeskiing Grand Prix halfpipe contest. French skier Kevin Rolland took second, with Olympic halfpipe champion David Wise (Reno, NV) landing in third. Devin Logan (West Dover, VT), who also competes in both pipe and slope, was the lone U.S. skier for the women, finishing just off the podium in fourth.
Gus Kenworthy (center) takes the win, France's Kevin Rolland in second and David Wise third. (Getty Images - Tom Pennington)
After a third place finish in Friday’s slopestyle contest, Kenworthy was looking to go big in the pipe. He did just that, posting a massive 95.6 score on his second run, which included four doubles, to carry him through for the win.
“I was hoping to have done a little better yesterday,” said Kenworthy. “The run I ended up getting third with was like the dumbed down version of my run, so I was really hungry coming into today. I’ve wanted to do a run with four doubles for a while. I just learned that dub 12 at the last Grand Prix. It felt good to add that in and do three doubles at the bottom.”
Kenworthy was the second competitor to drop, so after his final run, he watched teammates Wise, Alex Ferriera (Aspen, CO) and Torin Yater-Wallace (Basalt, CO) try and top his score. Yater-Wallace would have came close, but was unable to land on his feet on the last hit. Wise also struggled to put down a clean run, but was able to secure the third and final podium spot and walking away with his 10th national championship.
“Today right from the stat was kind of a tough day for me,” said Wise. “I was struggling all through practice. My last practice run I finally put something to my feet and I was like “Ok, I think I can pull this off.” Unfortunately the weather really came in on our last run and I wasn’t able to get enough speed to finish my run.”
David Wise competes in halfpipe finals at the Visa U.S. Freeskiing Grand Prix. (Getty Images - Tom Pennington)
If Wise would have had enough speed, fans may have seen him throw a right dub 14, which he’s done only once before at X Games. But the trick will have to wait until the next contest.
“That just means it [the dub 14] is still out there and it still hasn’t been done by anyone else yet. I’m glad to be standing on the podium today, glad to have fought through and landed a run, and looking forward to the next competition.”
After a second place finish in Friday’s slopestyle competition, Logan was looking to add another Grand Prix podium to her weekend. Sitting in third going into the final run, Logan’s run was clean, but not enough to top the strong run put down by first place finisher Ayana Onozuka of Japan. Sabrina Cakmalki of Germany finished second, with Janina Kuzma of New Zealand in third.
This weekend's Grand Prix competitions are all sanctioned as FIS World Cups and AFP Platium level events. The combination of both freeskiing and snowboarding World Cups is foreshadowing of the FIS Freestyle and Snowboard World Championships coming to Park City in 2019. The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association won the bid last June to bring the best athletes in the world together at the community's three resorts.
The fourth and final competition of the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Park City will take place on Sunday, March 1 with halfpipe snowboarding finals. Fans can watch the live stream on NBC Sports Live Extra beginning at 1:50 p.m. EST.
Men's Results
Women's Results
HIGHLIGHTS
- Gus Kenworthy won the halfpipe skiing contest at the Visa U.S. Freeskiing Grand Prix in Park City, topping France’s Kevin Rolland and Olympic Champion David Wise.
- David Wise also took home the honor of halfpipe national champion, the 10th of his career.
- Devin Logan was the top U.S. women’s finisher, landing just off the podium in fourth.
- Kyle Smaine, Torin Yater-Wallace and Alex Ferriera rounded out the U.S. men’s roster, finishing sixth, eighth and ninth, respectively.
- Olympic champion Maddie Bowman was unable to compete in today’s competition.
- Gus’ winning run: Left double cork 12 safety, Right 10 tail, Switch double 10 Japan, Alley oop double flat nine Japan, Double cork 10 safety
QUOTES
Gus Kenworthy
I am so stoked! Today was really good for me. I was hoping to have done a little better yesterday. The run I ended up getting third with was like the dumbed down version of my run, so I was really hungry coming into today. I’ve wanted to do a run with four doubles for a while. I just learned that dub 12 at the last Grand Prix. It felt good to add that in and do three doubles at the bottom. I couldn’t be more stoked, I’m really happy.
The level of riding here today was crazy. I did a run with four doubles, which was a first for me, but I almost wasn’t even sure if that was going to hold. That’s how high of a level it was. Torin unfortunately went down on his last run, but that was a heavy run. David Wise killed it, Justin Dorey did a run with both doubles, Kevin Rolland was going huge. It was a very stacked final.
David Wise
Today right from the start was kind of a tough day for me. I was struggling all through practice. My last practice run I finally put something to my feet and I was like “Ok, I think I can pull this off.” Unfortunately the weather really came in on our last run and I wasn’t able to get enough speed to finish my run and get my right dub 14 in, but that just means it’ s still out there and it still hasn’t been done yet. I’m glad to be standing on the podium today, glad to have fought through and landed a run, and looking forward to the next competition.
It was such an amazing contest, watching everybody kill it. Anybody out there could have won today and there were a lot of guys who were on the verge of winning. Seeing Gus come out and throw down that run, stomp it as clean as I’ve ever seen, was just amazing. So I’m stoked for him.
Ben Verge, U.S. Freeskiing Halfpipe Coach
Today was awesome, it was one of the better contests of the year. It’s pretty cool that different guys won every contest this year. It shows the level of skiing right now and the depth of the field, which is really cool.
This is the first win for Gus in a while. His ability to do both slope and pipe is huge. It definitely takes a toll on a guy, and he’s kind of struggled with that, but he showed today that he could obviously do both.
