Podium Sweep at Winter Games NZ
CARDRONA, New Zealand (Sept. 7, 2017) – Chloe Kim (Torrance, CA) led a USA sweep at the Winter Games NZ halfpipe, with Kelly Clark (Mammoth Lakes, CA) second and Maddie Mastro (Wrightwood, CA) third.
17-year-old Kim echoed her dominance of previous seasons to kick off the Olympic year with her fourth World Cup win. Sitting in third after qualifiers, she threw it all out there with a winning run that included a backside air, frontside 1080 tail, cab 720 indy, alley-oop indy and a McTwist indy for a score of 90.50. “It’s my first Winter Games and it’s been awesome!” said Kim. “It was nice to land something. On the second run I wanted to try the back-to-back tens, but it was a bit wild. Cleaning it up for the next contest will be a priority for me.”
Clark also stomped a solid run, but couldn’t match Kim, trailing her by 2.5 points. “My first run was a bit wild,” said Clark. “My second run was more the run that I wanted to do. I’m really happy with where my snowboarding’s at this time of year.”
Mastro came in as the top qualifier from the heats, but was stoked to finish on the podium. “I can’t complain,” she said. “I came here to have fun. That happened and landing on the podium was a bonus.”
In the men’s halfpipe comp, Toby Miller (Truckee, CA) was the top American finisher in sixth place, with Chase Josey (Hailey, ID) snagging ninth. Japan went one-two, with Yuto Totsuka in first and Ayumu Hirano in second. Patrick Burgener of Switzerland was third.
Jamie Anderson collects the Overall Winning Country award for the U.S. Snowboard Team.
The U.S. also took home the Overall Winning Country award from Winter Games NZ, with slopestyle champion Jamie Anderson (South Lake Tahoe, CA) collecting the trophy.
The FIS Snowboard Freestyle World Cup tour now takes a break until November 4 for the season’s first big air event in Copenhagen, Denmark.
