STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, CO (Feb. 7) - Newly crowned world aerials
champions Alisa Camplin of Australia and Russian Dmitri Arkhipov
kept up their winning ways Friday as the World Cup tour resumed
with the Sprint U.S. Freestyle Grand National World Cup at Steamboat
Ski Resort. It was Camplin, who won the Olympic title a year ago,
while Arkhipov set the tone for a men's Worlds medalists repeat.
Top Americans were birthday boy Ryan St. Onge (Winter Park, CO),
who gave himself a birthday present by posting the best result
of his career - fourth - and Kelly Hilliman (Tonawanda, NY), who
had her highest score while finishing seventh. Defending World
Cup champion Eric Bergoust (Missoula, MT) and Olympic silver medalist
Joe Pack (Park City, UT) each slapped back on their final jump,
taking them out of top-3 contention.
Arkhipov had 259.43 points with Alexei Grichin, the 2001 aerials
world champ who was silver medalist a week ago in the '03 Worlds
at Utah's Deer Valley Resort, second again at 254.17. Third place
went to Canadian Steve Omischl, who had 252.28 with St. Onge, who
turns 20, taking fourth (249.81).
"I thought 249 [points] would do it to get Ryan to the podium for the first
time," U.S. Head Coach Jeff Wintersteen said, "but he just missed.
He jumped awesome, though, and was our highlight. Bergy and Joe had outstanding
first jumps, but they both had trouble with their final landing and that was
it for them."
"After my second jump," St. Onge said, "I was thinking
about how it was one of the best jumps I've ever done. I pretty
much knew it wasn't going to be enough to be top-3 but I'm still
so happy to be able to land 'em in front of my family and friends."
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, CO (Feb. 8) - Defending World Cup champion
and World Championships silver medalist Jeremy Bloom (Loveland,
CO) tore through his final run Saturday to win the moguls World
Cup on the final day of the Sprint U.S. Freestyle Grand National
and lead a half-dozen U.S. men into the final round. In the women's
event, Olympic medalist Shannon Bahrke (Tahoe City, CA) protected
her World Cup lead and led five American women into finals as she
finished second behind Olympic and world champ Kari Traa of Norway.
On a postcard day, Bloom - who won the dual moguls gold medal
at World Championships a week earlier and took silver in moguls
- received 27.80 points after connecting with a heli-X spread on
his top jump and a double-twister spread on the bottom. World Cup
leader Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau of Canada was second and World
Cup rookie Dave Babic (Washington, VT) earned his first podium,
finishing third.
Olympic silver medalist and local favorite Travis Mayer (Steamboat
Springs, CO) was fifth with Luke Westerlund (Breckenridge, CO)
eighth, Mike Friedberg (Boulder, CO) 10th and Toby Dawson (Vail,
CO), who collected World Championships bronze in both moguls and
duals at Utah's Deer Valley Resort, 12th.
"I've been on a little bit of a roll and I'm just getting
back in the groove," said Bloom, who missed all preseason
training camps and the first three weeks of the season while training
or playing football for the University of Colorado. "As I
ski more, I get more comfortable and am skiing better."
Bloom qualified fourth for finals "and I wanted to ski as
fast as I could and scare myself, and win," he said. He had
a large delegation of fans from his hometown as well as folks who
came over from CU in Boulder. "It was fun to ski well in front
of so many friends and spectators," he said.
Babic said he was "pretty psyched that things went so well" as
he collected his first top-3 in World Cup action. His podium moved
him into eighth place in the moguls standings behind Rousseau with
Mayer second, Dawson third and Travis Cabral (South Lake Tahoe,
CA) fourth.
Babic hit a heli-X off his first air and did a variation of the
off-axis cork-7 (double rotation). "I was 'sick' - I carried
speed into that second jump and just went for it," he said. "I
really like this Steamboat course - it's fast and tight."
In the women's event, Traa - who won both moguls and duals for
the second consecutive World Championships - won with 27.31 points,
more than full point ahead of Bahrke (26.23). Emiko Torito (Englewood,
CO), who came through the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club
program, was fifth with Laurel Shanley (Olympic Valley, CA) seventh,
reigning world junior champion Hannah Kearney (Norwich, VT), a
high school junior, grabbing her first top-10 in eighth place,
and Worlds silver medalist Michelle Roark (Denver) 10th.
"Six guys into finals, five women into finals - obviously,
we had a lot of good skiing today," said Head Coach Jeff Wintersteen. "And
I'm psyched to see some of the new girls - certainly Hannah, who
hadn't skied well in Mont Tremblant or Lake Placid - do so well.
"Everyone skied so well. We know our moguls team is strong
but this was a pretty impressive performance."
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