Delaying the Women's SuperPipe competition one day was truly a wise move because today the conditions for boosting couldn't have been any better. All the gals competing on this spectacular sunny day were looking tight, but one young lady in particular looked as strong as a seasoned rider at the peak of her game. The 18-year-old Olympic team rock star Kelly Clark dominated the women's field with a big bag of tricks. Her smooth as buttah head-high McTwists stood out like tin foil at a Tupperware convention. One look at Kelly boosting upside down off the backside wall and you knew it was her day.

The big crowd gathered at the bottom of the pipe weren't just cheering for her though. Other ripperettes and crowd favorites like Shannon Dunn, Barrett Christy, Natasza Zurek and hometown girl Gretchen Bleiler each threw down for the crowd and a shot at the podium. Each lady-girl had three runs to grab the highest score and try for that shiny medal, and there were definitely some well put together runs.

Kelly Clark, feeling the stoke.

Barrett Christy, the most decorated woman in Winter X history, is mostly known for her slopestyle prowess but today she threw down some innovative lines in the U-Jump. A standout link up from her included a frontside 720 to backside 360 to frontside cab, a punk rock trick that no other girl tried.

The first gal to lock her place into the Olympic shred team, Shannon Dunn, rode well with a solid combination of a McTwist to frontside 720, making a show in each of her runs. Even with the support of her mom and friend Tina Basich, Shannon couldn't seem to get her riding to a place above fifth. Although she didn't podium, her riding today was certainly good training for Salt Lake.

Tricia Byrnes with a Salt Lake worthy backside air.

Natasza can throw down a Crippler but the upside down flavor didn't show today. She was nailing frontside 540s to McTwists but got beat out by Stine Brun Kjeldaas on her final run of the day. Stine was the only woman spinning big off the first hit with a frontside 720 at the top of her final run. As an added bonus, on the same last run she put down a hand planting McTwist on the final wall to steal the silver from Natasza.

Kelly boosting with the Axis Cam looming in the background.

But the real story of the day was Kelly Clark getting busy with an unstoppable display of aerial control. She was busting frontside 540's into the biggest McTwist I've ever seen thrown by a lovely lady. And if that's not enough, she decided to stomp a frontside 720 on the last hit of her third run. By the way, she doesn't really ever do frontside 7's, but Kelly was hot today and whatever she wanted, she got.

"That is probably the best run I have ever done in my life. I did it once in practice the other day but I've been trying to get the right combination down. It's hard because the pipe was kind of short. It was hard to get the right combo down but I wanted to get the two technical tricks up top and then go as big as I could and do another one at the bottom."

Kelly had never finished higher than fifth place in previous ESPN Winter X Games. Her final run was 12 points higher than Stine's second place finish. Brun Kjeldaas, of Kongsberg, Norway, earned her second Winter X Games medal after taking the gold in the SuperPipe in 2000. Zurek's bronze Winter X Games VI medal was her third. Zurek won the bronze in 2000 and the silver in the 2001 in the SuperPipe competition.

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