Saturday, August 19

The once and future queen

By DJ Murphy
ESPN.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- At last year's X Games, Fabiola da Silva suffered one of the few losses of her vert skating career when she was upset for the gold medal by Ayumi Kawasaki of Japan. This year's edition was again a two-horse race as the rivals battled it out at a higher level than the other competitors in the event. This race, however, went to Fabiola by a nose.

The skaters almost staged a mini-revolt before the competition even began. Miffed at the early start time and the lack of spectators (the X Games main gates had yet to open at 10 a.m.), the four skaters, led by da Silva, considered not skating. Event organizers rushed in to smooth ruffled feathers and assure the athletes that if you skate, they will come. By the time the competition was scheduled to begin the gates had opened, the stands had filled and the competitors were ready to rock.

"It was just really early, that's why [we were upset]," said da Silva, by way of explanation. "It's hard to skate when it's that early, but everything went cool."

da Silva's first run definitely went cool. The skaters each took two runs, keeping the better score of the two. Her first run was clean, highlighted by big air, a 720 and a flatspin, the latter two of which no other competitors tried in this competition. The flatspin is a new addition to her bag of tricks and another example of how she keeps raising the bar in women's skating. She scored a 64.75 on the run, good enough for the lead coming out of the first round.

da Silva gave a golden performance.

When asked what really put her over the top, da Silva said, "I think the way I put tricks together worked. Also, I've been trying to go really big."

Go big she did. She used huge air to set up back-to-back 720s in her second run but spilled at the end. Her first run score would have to stand if she was to regain the gold medal.

Ayumi Kawasaki, who beat da Silva in this contest last year, was down by three full points when it was time for her second run. To repeat as X Games champion she would have to make up ground on a clean first run. Her second run was good. She threw a number of flip tricks and technical grinds and showed flashes of the talent that beat da Silva last year. In the end, though, da Silva was able to go bigger than Kawasaki and that provided her with the difference she needed. Kawasaki's second run score was 64.25, edged out for first place by half a point.

Kawasaki couldn't repeat this year.

Niether Spain's Merce Borrull nor the lone American in the final, Katie Brown, were able to put together a clean run. Before the competition Brown's main goal was to keep her feet.

"I'm not really a vert skater but I qualified so I'm just going to go out and have fun. I just want to skate, stay on my feet. I'm not really planning to win at all," said Brown.

Brown's score of 25.00 from her first run stood up and put her in fourth place. However, Borrull and Brown were clearly second-class citizens in this particular competition. Borrull, with a bit more experience on the vert ramp, scored a 39.00 on her second run to edge Brown for the bronze medal.

da Silva took the top spot on the medal stand and, after also winning gold in the women's park event, was able to eradicate the only blemish that marred her record. The queen of the vert ramp -- she won in '96, '97 and '98 -- reigned at the X Games once more.