Empire Attire

The US Freeskiing Grand Prix at Copper has come to an end.  It might have been the first halfpipe competition of the season, but it sure did not appear that way.  There was no holding back in the finals for this talented group of athletes.

 

For the Empire team, Jossi Wells, Simon Dumont, and Sarah Burke advanced to the finals.  Peter Olenick decided to compete in qualifiers, after a long time out due to injury.  He took it very easy in his runs, being that it was his first day back in the pipe, but the crowd went wild for his flares and 900 at the bottom.  Jossi boosted high with effortless style, which the judges rewarded him for.  He decided to stay away from some of his more daring tricks, since he also had a season full of injuries last year. Jossi still earned a respectable 8th place finish.

Simon took a serious digger at practice last Tuesday.  He shook it off in true Dumont fashion and decided to compete in qualifiers on Wednesday. Simon qualified 3rd in his heat, throwing down a safety run.  He decided to go for it in the finals, putting together one of the more technical runs of the day.  Unfortunately, Simon was unable to get enough speed for his double 1260 on his last hit and ended up in 9th.  The competition season is very young and Simon will be the man to beat when he puts his run to his feet.

Sarah Burke was a trooper in the women’s competition.  She put down a solid run in qualifiers, which did not get scored as high as she would have liked due to a couple butt-checks. On her second run, she took a gnarly fall on the deck but got up with a smile.  She advanced to finals with her first run, but could not quite stick the run she wanted.  She finished the competition in 7th place.