Clark Tops First Olympic Qualifier

BRECKENRIDGE, CO. (Dec. 14) – Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark (West Dover, VT) edged a little closer to her fourth Olympic Winter Games Saturday when she placed second in the halfpipe snowboarding finals and became the top U.S. finisher in the first Olympic qualifying event at the Dew Tour iON Mountain Championships. Australian Torah Bright won the halfpipe final, while 13-year old rookie Chloe Kim (La Palma, CA) finished third. Clark will roll confidently into the next qualification event, the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain, Dec. 21-22.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark (West Dover, VT) edged a little closer to her fourth Olympic Winter Games Saturday when she placed second in the halfpipe snowboarding finals and became the top U.S. finisher in the first Olympic qualifying event at the Dew Tour iON Mountain Championships at Breckenridge.
• Australian Torah Bright won the halfpipe final, while U.S. Snowboarding rookie Chloe Kim (La Palma, CA) finished third. At only 13 years old, Kim is not yet eligible for the Olympics, but she shows huge potential for the sport after her first Dew Tour performance.
• Arielle Gold (Steamboat Springs, CO) finished just off the podium in fourth, just a couple hours after her brother Taylor Gold (also Steamboat) finished third in the men’s halfpipe final.
• On Saturday the U.S. team showed it has a tremendous depth of talent with veterans and rookies on the podium.
• Clark is in a strong position going into the next four qualification events. The top snowboarding athletes in the Olympic qualification hunt are Clark, then Gold, Kaitlyn Farrington (Salt Lake City, UT), Gretchen Bleiler (Aspen, CO) at and Elena Hight (S. Lake Tahoe, CA).
• Selection to the Olympic snowboarding team will be made from athletes who have a top-four finish against the entire field in one of five selection events. Those athletes will be ranked with their best two of five qualifying events using World Cup scoring (1,000 point scale) comparing only USA athletes.
• Clark landed her first frontside 1080 of the contest season and will be looking to link back-to-back 1080s going into Sochi.
• Clark’s second-place run: Frontside air, backside 540, frontside 1080, cab 720, frontside 540 and frontside 720.
• Clark will roll confidently into the next qualification event, the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain, Dec. 21-22.
• Men’s slopestyle finals will wrap up the first Olympic qualification event Sunday at 3:00 p.m. EST and air live on NBCSN. All competition can be streamed live on www.dewtour.com.

QUOTES
Kelly Clark
I’m so happy with my second place finish. It’s really about getting those points to qualify for the Olympics at these events. I thought Torah rode amazing and coming in second to her is a good day any day. Honestly getting the second place today with those first place Olympic points…I’ve never been so happy to get second. I feel like I won this thing today. That was really my goal was to get those points. Ultimately what it means to me is hopefully I’ll have assurance of that spot sooner, where I can simply focus on my riding. 

Chloe Kim
It’s my first Dew Tour, so that was exciting. It feels great. I really wasn’t expecting this.

RESULTS
Women’s Finals Results

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