Freestyle

McPhie and Wilson Sweep the Podium

by
Amanda Revman
2012-12-22 08:07
 

KREISCHBERG, Austria (Dec. 22) – Heather McPhie (Bozeman, MT) remained undefeated with a win at the second stop of the FIS Freestyle World Cup circuit on a difficult course in Kreischberg. Teammate Heidi Kloser (Vail, CO) posted the best results of her young career in second. Olympic medalist Bryon Wilson (Butte, MT), whose last podium was two years ago, stayed atop the leader board for most of the day with consistent skiing and huge air to take a career first World Cup win. It was the first ever duals event hosted in Kreischberg. Both moguls and aerials will come together Jan. 19 at the USANA U.S. Freestyle Cup in Lake Placid, NY.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Heather McPhie (Bozeman, MT) remained unbeaten at the second stop of the FIS Freestyle World Cup circuit.
  • It is McPhie’s third career victory.
  • Olympic bronze medalist Bryon Wilson (Butte, MT) won out over gold medalist Alexandre Bilodeau in the final heat for his first career win.
  • It was Wilson's first World Cup win of his career and first podium in two years.
  • Wilson is in his first full season back after a knee injury in 2011.
  • Heidi Kloser (Vail, CO) posted a career first podium in second, falling to teammate McPhie in the finals.
  • Five U.S. men and four women made it through the qualification rounds.
  • Both moguls and aerials will come together Jan. 19 at the USANA U.S. Freestyle Cup in Lake Placid, NY where Olympic champion Hannah Kearney (Norwich, VT) is likely to return

QUOTES
Heather McPhie

It was an interesting couple days. I really struggled yesterday and went to bed last night not knowing what was going to happen today but I came out this morning and decided I wasn't going to give up without a fight. A big goal of mine was just to stay mentally strong. This course was really flat and thats usually not my strength so to be able to excel here means a lot.

It was great going into finals with Heidi. When I saw her coming up the cat I couldn't have been more excited for her. As soon as I saw her I told her 'I'm going to be competitive in about 5 minutes but right now I'm so stoked for you!' The U.S. is killing it right now and this was a great Christmas present for all of us!

Bryon Wilson
This is my first season back since my injury and it feels good to be back on tour and to come out with my first win is pretty amazing. Theres no better feeling than to be able to put all the pieces together and come out on top.

In my finals run I was able to see that Bilodeau bobbled so I knew if I successfully threw a trick I could win. Right now i'm just focusing on my skiing and working on staying in the moment. If I do that the results will come.

Heidi Kloser
I really wanted to have a good day and just be happy with the way I was skiing, I didn't want to focus on the results. If I was skiing how I wanted to ski the results would come. I qualified second which is the highest i've ever qualified so I went into finals really excited. I had a bit of a sloppy run against Heather but I'm really happy with my second place finish.

Garth Hager, Moguls coach
Both Heather and Heidi were very consistent today in trusting their speed into the bottom jump where they were able to make up ground. This is one of the best finishes I can think of in a while. To have the U.S. on three of six podiums today is really unbelievable. They all trusted their skiing and didn't worry about what anyone else was doing. In doing that they were able to make the bottom as clean and fast as they could.

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For more information contact:
Amanda Revman – arevman@ussa.org

 


 


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