Big days for USA and Japan in busy Saturday at Mammoth Mountain

Jamie Anderson (USA) performs during the Mammoth Mountain slopestyle World Cup at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix, at Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort, California, USA, January 2022. Image credit: / Mike Dawson / U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team

Sunday, January 9, 2022

A huge day of action at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain went down on Saturday, with both slopestyle and halfpipe World Cup competitions taking to the pristine Mammoth Unbound venues where some incredible riding went down from start to finish of the day.

Jamie Anderson and Red Gerard swept the top of the slopestyle podium for the host US squad, while the Japanese matched their American counterparts in the halfpipe, with Ruki Tomita and Ayumu Hirano grabbing the respective women’s and men’s wins there.

SLOPESTYLE RECAP

While the Mammoth wind wreaked havoc on the competition programme over the previous two days, Saturday dawned calm, and the men’s qualifications that were postponed from Friday went down in near-perfect conditions, with Niek van der Velden (NED) putting down something of a surprise top score in those qualifications.

Rolling straight into finals, the women then lead things off, with strong runs from Katie Ormerod (GBR) and top-qualifier Kokomo Murase (JPN) bested by pre-competition favourite Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL) and her first run score of 82.50.

However, that was before all-time great Jamie Anderson was able to put down a clean run, and when the 31-year-old did so in her second and final attempt of the day she laced a top-to-bottom that would give her a score of 86.32 for the win.

Starting things off on the rails with a front board to fakie, Anderson then went cab boardslide switch-up to frontboard on the flat down, before a perfect lipslide 270 off on the big rainbow rail. Through the jumps, she then went with a smooth backside rodeo 540 melon into a massive cab double cork 1080 weddle to finish things off for her third career Mammoth victory.

“I feel really happy, really proud of myself,” Anderson said after her third career Mammoth World Cup win, “I had a pretty hard week. Today was the first day I even got to hit the second jump…I missed all the practice before qualies. I’m so hyped. My family’s here, Cali is my stomping grounds, so this one feels really special to me.”

Second place for the women with a score of 82.50 went to reigning slopestyle World Champion Sadowski-Synnott, for her third-straight World Cup podium and the sixth of her career, while Murase would round out the podium in third with a score of 77.94, maintaining her lead on the slopestyle and Park & Pipe overall World Cup standings in the process.

On the men’s side of things it was Red Gerard matching Anderson with his third career win at Mammoth, putting down a heater of a second run for a score of 82.88.

Kicking things off with a backside 270 boardslide 270 out on the chain gap rail, Gerard then went switch backside 270 on to fakie on the flat-down, before going cab 270 lipslide 270 melon out on the rainbow rail. On the jumps he finished things off with a backside 1260 melon, then a perfect switch backside triple cork 1620 weddle.

However, according to the man himself, he felt he had more to give.

“To come back to Mammoth and win it again, I’m really psyched,” said Gerard, “I really wanted to do the 16 to 16 combo (on the jumps), but it just didn’t line up. Speed was changing each run. We’re at that time of the day when the sun starts setting behind the mountains and all that. But man, I couldn’t be happier, honestly.”

Second place behind Gerard with a score of 76.56 was top qualifier van der Velden, as the 21-year-old earned his first career podium and the first FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe podium for a Dutch man in almost a decade.

Rounding out the men’s podium in third with a score of 73.44 was Tiarn Collins, giving the New Zealand contingent their second podium of the day, and giving Collins the fourth World Cup podium of his career.

With a fifth-place finish, Canada’s Sebastien Toutant would maintain his lead on the men’s slopestyle World Cup standings.

HALFPIPE RECAP

As with slopestyle earlier in the day, the halfpipe competition at Mammoth saw an intense programme of men’s qualifications immediately followed by women’s and men’s finals. While the temperature at the halfpipe was dropping throughout the night, an enthusiastic crowd on hand kept the vibes high despite a last-minute pullout of competition from the USA’s Shaun White.

What White’s DNS means for his Olympic hopes is still to be determined, but even without snowboarding’s biggest star in the house there was lots to love about Saturday nights action in the Mammoth superpipe.

Taking her first career World Cup win on the women’s side of things was 20-year-old Ruki Tomita, who put down a super clean, super stylish top-to-bottom run for a score of 89.40.

Tomita started things off with big frontside air, into a backside 900, then a frontside 720 indy, a cab 720 weddle, and finally a frontside 900 melon to finish things off and take the victory.

Second place for the women went to Cai Xuetong, as the most successful rider in FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe history added yet another podium to her record haul. With a run that included a slick cab 720 nosegrab to frontside 900 indy in the middle of the run, Cai’s score of 86.80 would earn her the 29th World Cup podium of her career.

Finally, third place for the women would go to Ruki Tomita’s older sister Sena, giving the 22-year the seventh podium of her World Cup career and the Japanese team their second of what would end up being four podiums on the evening.

The other two podiums, of course, would come on the men’s side of things, with two-time Olympic silver medallist Ayumu Hirano leading the way.

Like White, Hirano stepped back snowboard competition following the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, dedicating himself to skateboarding and eventually earning himself an a spot on the Japanese skate team and competing at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games.

Since returning to snowboarding Hirano has more than just picked up where he left off - he’s made history, becoming the first rider ever to stomp a triple cork in halfpipe competition when he did so at Dew Tour before Christmas.

On Saturday he took another step, winning his first major international halfpipe competition since 2018, when he took top spot at that season’s X Games.

While Hirano’s run only contained four hits, they were four exceptional hits.

Kicking things off with a frontside double cork 1440 frontside grab, Hirano then dropped a cab double 1440 weddle, then a frontside double 1260 frontside grab, and finally a backside 900 weddle to finish things off. Writing about the run doesn’t really do it justice though - you need to see it.

Second place behind Ayumu Hirano was halfpipe World Cup leader Ruka Hirano (no relation to Ayumu), as the 19-year-old kicked things off with a switch backside 1080 weddle and included his own version of the frontside dub 1440 frontside grab, scoring a 93.40.

Finally, third place on the men’s podium went to Germany’s Andre Hoefflich, who spoiled a potential Japanese sweep with the second-highest-boosting run behind Ayumu. With a score of 90.00, Hoefflich would earn the second World Cup podium of his career.

QUICK LINKS

• Highlight clips and interviews

• Full results

• Photos slopestyle

• Photos halfpipe

• World Cup standings

Press Release Source: Chad Buchholz / www.fis-ski.com/en/snowboard

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