Olympic Champion Jamie Anderson Wins Season’s First Slopestyle Snowboarding World Cup
Olympic champion Jamie Anderson earned the first win of the 2017-18 slopestyle snowboarding world cup season on Monday at the Winter Games NZ in Cardrona, New Zealand.
The 26-year-old Anderson, who earned the first gold medal in women’s slopestyle snowboarding at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014, scored 85.78 points to beat Japan’s Miyabi Onitsuka and New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski Synnott, who finished second and third, respectively.
Anderson, the two-time defending champion in the biennial event at the Cardrona Alpine Resort, earned the top spot in qualifying with a 95.50 out of 100, while fellow American Hailey Langland, just 17, won her qualifying heat with 92 points, sending the Americans into the finals as the two top qualifiers.
Anderson had the top two runs in the finals, scoring 83.36 on her first run and the winning 85.78 on her second run.
The victory in Cardrona is her eighth world cup podium finish in slopestyle. Langland, a 206 Youth Olympian, finished 10th.
Anderson, a native of South Lake Tahoe, California, is a five-time Winter X Games gold medalist, with 14 overall Winter X Games medals.
She has been dominating slopestyle since becoming the youngest Winter X Games medalist at the age of 15 when she won a bronze medal in 2006, just days younger than fellow snowboarding legend Shaun White.
Anderson has finished first in slopestyle in the FIS World Cup standings the past two seasons, and was first overall (including big air) in 2015-16.
U.S. men finished just out off the podium with a pair of 17-year-olds leading the charge. Chris Corning took fourth (81.91) and Red Gerard placed fifth (79.89). Norway’s Marcus Kleveland won the event with 85.58.
Source: teamusa.org
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