Wednesday, April 5

US Freeskiing Open

The rugged Colorado peaks in Vail provided the battleground for an assault on the 20th centurys notion of the sport of skiing. A revolution for freedom. A revolution for skiing. One hundred and fifty competitors from around the world came to put everything on the line, in a quest to become champion. This was their proving ground. This was the US Freeskiing Open.

The US Freeskiing Open consists of three events:

The Slopestyle Competition is a judged run through a terrain park consisting of two rails at the top of the course, a gigantic spine hit in the middle and two massive table top jumps at the bottom.

The Big Air Contest is just that, BIG AIR. This contest is a little bit different in that skiers are matched up, and jump head to head in sudden death battles. The judges vote on the best jump and the winner moves on.

The Skiercross Race throws four skiers into the course at once, into a run of berms, jumps, banked turns, and more. Its a head to head competition where the first two racers advance to the next round and the rest were sent packing.

The Slopestyle event was an exciting one to watch. Qualifying in a jam session format with six heats of fifteen competitors in each heat. Heats were one hour long and athletes could take up to five runs each if time allowed, but only two competitors from each heat moved to the final day.

The second day was made up of of two heats. Heat one consisted of some top skiers like Phillipe Belanger, JF Cusson, Tim McKeever, Tanner Hall, Phillipe Larose, Phillipe Poirier, and many more. Everyone pretty much stuck the top to rail slides and then had the choice of launching a couple of jumps before taking off the two big air jumps near the bottom of Gold Peak. The bottom jump ended up being the spot to watch from. The guys were throwing huge mistys and rodeos along with some serious spinning, with high scores going to switch landings.

Heat two consisted of Vinnie Dorion, Jonny Moseley, Evan (Dont Call Me Gangster) Raps, Skogan Sprang, Shane McConkey, JP Auclair, and more. Dorion pulled a sweet underflip 540 and Skogan Sprang threw a nice 540 flat spin. This heat also had two of the big names in Big Mountain skiing with Shane McConkey and Aaron McGovern learning rail slides days ago and pulling big spins. In the end Vinnie was the top qualifier for the finals and Belanger led the way for heat one.

The finals came down to ten skiers and one run to impress the judges. Everyone skied out of their minds but in the end the judges were most impressed by Jonny Moseleys run, which consisted of the first switch 540 Rodeo done in competition, and a huge bust off the spine jump. Vinny Dorion came in second with a smooth clean run and Marc Bellivue ended up in third, with the first switch front ever thrown in competition.

The Big Air event was held Saturday night under the lights. Sixteen guys were slated in a head-to-head format with the winner advancing. There were some great match-ups and some even better jumping. The story of the night was complete unknown Andrew Woods. He stuck five 1260s in a row to take the victory. Jonny Moseley, Phillipe Belanger, and Vinnie Dorion put up a great fight landing tough tricks including Moseleys first ever in competition Dinner roll 1080, but was unable to land a trick against Swede, Jon Olsson who moved into the finals only to face Woods and his insane 1260. Woods took the win sticking his biggest 1260 of the night, with Olsson in second.

Moseley and Belanger faced-off with each other in the consolation round, but the Olympic gold medallist was just to tough to beat, taking third place, leaving the young Canadian, Bellanger, in fourth. Over 4,000 spectators showed up for the event and a near fight ensued when Brad Holmes started throwing free Rip Curl gear in the crowd.

The Skiercross had a field of women competitors who all skied very well. There were no big surprises leading up to the finals. The finals consisted of a strong group, all of which had major Skiercross podiums under their belts. Aleisha Cline last years X Games winner would face this years X Game winner Anik Demers and former US Ski Team member, Noel Lyons, and Patti Sherman Kauf. The run started off with excitement as Kauf took a hard fall forcing the ladies to scramble to avoid hitting her. This allowed the women to gain their positioning all the way to the finish line. Cline took the lead and had no problem winning the run. Lyons finished in second with Demers in third.

The Skiercross was a difficult battle for the competitors. Not only did they have to face three other racers on the difficult course; they also had to deal with a strong snowstorm. The early rounds had no surprises in them, all of the top names advanced to the round of twenty, but this was where the real action started. A handful of big names were ready to do battle down Gold Peak. Seth Morrison, Reggie Crist, Shane McConkey, and Thomas Anderson all moved into the round of ten. The big story leaving the round of twenty was the upset of early favorite Zach Crist, who narrowly missed moving on after being beat by up and comer Ryan McCollough of Crested Butte.

In the semi-finals Shane McConkey and Reggie Crist fought for position all the way down, but McConkey had the right moves in the end and beat Crist. Eric Archer easily moved into the finals in the other semi-final round with McCollough edging out Henrik Windstedt of Sweden. So the stage was set, it would be Reggie Crist, Shane McConkey, Eric Archer, and Ryan McCollough in the finals. As in the semi-final Crist and McConkey battled for an early lead, but Crist got the upper hand this time and there was no looking back. Crist won with McConkey finishing second and McCollough third.

Make sure to catch all the action when the 2000 FREESKIING OPEN airs on ESPN. Check your local listings for air times.