Jamie Anderson shows her diversity
Source: TAHOE DAILY TRIBUNE By Steve Yingling
Beware, women’s halfpipe riders.
Already the women’s top slopestyle rider in the world, Jamie Anderson of Sierra-at-Tahoe is becoming more serious about her halfpipe career.
It showed earlier this month in the sixth annual Burton New Zealand Open.
Anderson, 17, captured her first major halfpipe competition to complete a sweep of the Burton Global Open Series and the Swatch Ticket To Ride World Snowboard Tour events.
The halfpipe wasn’t expected, especially since former Olympic halfpipe gold medalist Kelly Clark was first in qualifying with a score of 86.50, and Anderson barely squeaked into the finals in eighth place out of 36 participants.
But Anderson didn’t waste any time separating herself from the field in the finals. As the first finalist to ride, Anderson caught the judges’ eyes by executing an inverted backside 540. The maneuver won best trick and helped her score 84.25, a total the other riders couldn’t top.
“I didn’t expect to win at all,” Anderson told Transworld Snowboarding. “My first run was pretty good, and I knew I was maybe up there, but I didn’t think top three.”
Anderson was 10.5 points better than runner-up Jiayu Liu of China and exactly 11 in front of third-place finisher Clark.
Anderson’s mother, Lauren, said that her daughter has been devoting more time to halfpipe training this summer.
The slopestyle title came much easier for Anderson. Her first run of 81.83 was more than enough to take the top rung of the podium, but she raised her score each time she tackled the course. Her second run netted a score of 85.83, and she topped out on the final run with a 90.00.
Cheryl Maas of the Netherlands was a distant second with 66 points.
The stellar week enabled Anderson to take command in the $100,000 Burton Global Open Series Championship and the Swatch TTR rankings.
After her dominant performances, Lauren Anderson thought Go211.com said it best in their assessment of her daughter.
“They said she is a female Shaun White,” Lauren Anderson said. “It kind of sounded good to me.”
Anderson will continue her Down Under tour by competing in the Australian Open next month.
If you want to see some the action from the New Zealand Open, go to go211.com.