David Wise, Maddie Bowman clinch Olympic spots
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. - With snow falling steadily in the halfpipe, even freeskier David Wise's back-up run wouldn't work. Despite a winter storm that has dumped about a foot of snow and canceled finals in three other events here at the U.S. Grand Prix, Wise was able to finish atop the podium and mathematically secure his spot on the U.S. Olympic team.
On the women's side, halfpipe freeskiier Maddie Bowman did the same.
"I have my A run and then I have my adverse weather conditions run, and even the adverse weather conditions run was not going to work today," said Wise, 23. "The conditions were so slow, so I had to really change my run. I almost never want to do my double cork first hit. It's just better to do it lower down in the pipe where people can see it better, but I had to switch it to doing it first hit today just to make it happen. That's the only place in the pipe I had enough speed to do it."
The event was the third of five that the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association is using to name an Olympic team. Already this weekend, finals in freeskiing slopestyle and snowboarding slopestyle and halfpipe were canceled because of snow, high winds and damage to the courses. Per International Ski Federation rules, the qualifying scores were accepted as final results for the freeskiing slopestyle finals.
On Saturday, both snowboard events were canceled and a jury determined qualifying scores would not count as final scores per FIS and World Snowboard Tour (TTR) rules. The USSA announced late Saturday that it was seeking to contest a third qualifier this week at Mammoth Mountain, Calif., once it receives approval from FIS.
Snowboarders are already headed there for the fourth and fifth qualifying events to be held Thursday through Sunday. The team will be named on Sunday.
Despite snow that fell throughout the finals on Sunday and required the Breckenridge crew to clean the pipe several times, Wise and Bowman were able to secure spots. Wise is capable of stringing double corks together, yet did only one in his run and relied on 900s and 720.
Bowman, meanwhile, typically would do two 900s in her run but instead opted to include one.
"I am just happy that I put down my run," said Bowman, 20. "I wish everyone had better conditions and everything so we could really see the full potential of everyone. I'm definitely stoked and I don't think it's hit me yet."
Wise and Bowman each won the first selection event here in December. Because skiers are selected based on their best two results, no skier can better their results and bump them from the team.
The final two selection events will be held next week in Park City, Utah. The team will be named on Saturday.
"There's no pressure," said Wise. "I can just focus on the things I need to focus on as far as my skiing. There's no pressure for results. I don't need to worry about getting another podium, so it feels really good."