2015 DEER VALLEY FREESTYLE WORLD CUP

 

The 2015 Freestyle World Cup at Deer Valley, UT showcased the best aerialists and mogul skiers in the world with US and Canadian athletes making an impressive showing in all events.

AERIALS
Three U.S. aerialists earned their spots on the podium at the Deer Valley Aerial World Cup event on the first night of this three-night event. Unlike past years, mild temperatures and clear skies greeted the large gathering of fans gather as the US Women’s Team took two out of three spots on the podium in the ladies event and the USA took second place in a the men’s competition. Click here to see the video of the Aerials on Youtube.

USA’s Ashley Caldwell took home the Gold after winning with the final jump by being the only female athlete bold enough to throw triple jumps in both rounds of the final. In her last jump, she threw a lay, double-full, full that nailed 1st place with a score of 99.78. Her teammate Kiley McKinnon took 2nd place with a back-full, double-full that she executed almost flawlessly in the air, scoring 95.52. In the 3rd spot on the podium went to China’s Shen Xiaoxue with a score of 83.54. This was her first-ever podium in only three World Cup starts. Click here to see Ashley’s jump on Youtube

The men’s event saw eight US athletes make the 12-man final jump with two US athletes gracing the podium. The win went to Qi Guangpu, who threw a double-full, full, double-full for his final jump scoring 138.50. This triple flip with five full rotations gained his a score of 138.50. In 2nd place was USA’s Mac Bohonnon who threw his second consecutive personal-best jump, a double-full, full, full in the final round for a score of 128.51. In 3rd place was Ukranian, Oleksandr Abramenko also with a score of 128.51 because of tiebreaking FIS rules, Abramenko had to settle for third place. This was the third podium of his career. To see Mac’s jump, click this Youtube link.

The aerial event is always spectacular. Each round of jumps narrowed the field with the large crowd of spectators seeing jumpers from all over the world executing fantastic jumps as they flipped and twisted in the air.

MOGULS
The Friday evening mogul event was thrilling as always. Spectators were witness to skiers charging down the mogul course that contained two mandatory jumps. Athletes were judged on speed, turns and jump execution. many skiers ran the course is 24+ seconds through bumps that experienced skiers would have a hard time navigating at all and to make it more interesting they threw D-spins, 1080’s, back flips and other crowd-pleasing inverted jumps with plenty of amplitude and crashes

The men’s mogul event saw Canadian, Mikael Kingsbury, the World Champion top the podium with a score of 90.25. Australian Matt Graham earned the 2nd place spot on the podium with a score of 85.49 and USA’s Patrick Deneen took the 3rd place spot with a score of 85.07. To see Kingsbury’s run, click this link

For the ladies, it was USA’s KC Oakley who topped the podium, with a score of 82.53. Canadian sisters Justine and Chloé Dufour-Lapointe finished second and third respectively. Justine scored 79.46 to finish 2nd, edging out her sister Chloé who scored 79.28. Here is the link to CK’s run on Youtube

DUAL MOGULS
Saturday evening saw head-to-head competition. For the women, it was Canadian Justine Dufour-Lapointe in the 1st place spot on the podium, with USA’s Hannah Kearney in 2nd place and Australian Britteny Cox in 3rd place. If you were not able to attend in person, just click this link to Youtube and watch the final run.

The men’s event saw Canadian Mikael Kingsbury once again top the podium and win the Gold. USA’s Dylan Walczyk was 2nd and Switzerland’s Marco Tade was 3rd. Here is the video of Kingsbury’s win and a link Youtube link to Dylan’s run.

Ian Fehler
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