Dropping the Hammer; Kauf, Page, Giaccio on the Podium in Waterville
It was a day that dreams are made of in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, where Jaelin Kauf, Nick Page and Olivia Giaccio all landed on the podium at the Toyota Waterville Freestyle Cup in front of their cheering friends, family and hometown crowd.
“It was really fun to be on the podium with Jae, [it is] always fun to share it with a U.S. teammate, and quite a lot of the time it has been Jaelin so it’s awesome to see her shredding as well and to do that on home soil is incredible,” said Giaccio. “I was excited with my times today so I’m going to look to keep pushing that a little bit more and see what tomorrow will bring.”
After mixed weather conditions over the last few days, ranging from snow to blistering wind and gorgeous bluebird skies, the bumps on Lower Bobbies run had been well prepared for today’s World Cup events.
In qualification, five U.S. athletes made their World Cup debuts: Reese Chapdelaine, Jack Petrone, Gavin Tobey, Nate Gendron, and Camden Lewis all suited up in World Cup bibs for the first time and gave stellar performances, finishing 24th, 33rd, 37th, 40th and 53rd respectively.
Dylan Marcellini of the Stifel U.S. Ski Team finished 22nd, followed by Asher Michel in 24th and Charlie Mickel in 34th. On the women’s side in qualifying, Alli Macuga landed in 20th, and Kylie Kariotis in 21st. Seven athletes advanced to finals, Page, Dylan Walczyk, Kauf, Giaccio, Tess Johnson, Kasey Hogg and Kai Owens, and incredible showing for the U.S. team.
Large fluffy snowflakes began to fall as the athletes warmed up for finals. Walczyk put down two great top-to-bottoms to start the day but missed out on super finals, finishing ninth on the day. Tess Johnson ended 13th, Kasey Hogg 14th, and Kai Owens 15th.
The long day of competition wrapped in an epic super finals battle with three Stifel U.S. Ski Team athletes vying for the podium. Kauf and Giaccio dropped in back to back, each putting down their best runs of the day, perfectly composing their speed, turns and air. Kauf had one of the fastest times of the day, putting herself solidly into second place just behind Perrine Laffont (FRA). Giaccio finished third, earning her third podium of the season and 15th in her career.
“I made a couple mistakes in my finals run and cleaned it up and did exactly what I wanted to do for that super finals run, so, [I’m] stoked with the run I was able to put down and stoked to share the podium with Olivia,” said Kauf. “We obviously have such a strong women’s team, I don’t think everyone was able to put it together exactly how they wanted to today, there is definitely a lot more that this team is capable of, so hopefully we see that tomorrow.”
Page qualified in the top spot, making him the last competitor to drop, following Mikael Kingsbery, a longtime mentor to Page. The men had trouble in the super finals with multiple crashes, but Page wasn’t phased. With one of the largest air packages of the day, Page skied into second place just behind Kingsbury - his first-ever podium on U.S. soil.
“That first run that I skied today wasn’t my favorite in qualifying, I knew I needed to step it up and so I was talking to my coaches and said that the rest of the day, I was going to drop the hammer,” said Page.
Tomorrow is the second dual moguls event of the season, one that won’t disappoint as the top athletes in the world go head to head. Tune in at 2:00 p.m. ET on Outside TV.
