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Few Fresh Challengers for Top Women in the Halfpipe
Torah Bright, center, who won the women’s halfpipe, on the stand with Ellery Hollingsworth, left, and Kelly Clark.
STRATTON, Vt. - Familiar faces were on the podium after the women’s halfpipe finals at the United States Open Snowboarding Championships here Saturday.
The winner, Torah Bright, a 22-year-old from Australia; and the second-place finisher, Kelly Clark, became the only two women to win three halfpipe titles at the United States Open, the longest-running competition in snowboarding at 27 years.
“As a rider, I’m happy I’m consistent at these contests,” said Bright, who also won gold at the Winter X Games. “It’s hard to stay on top of things each year at contests.”
Yet during an era in which competitive opportunities and prize money have grown for professional women’s snowboarders, the field of women consistently winning contests has largely remained small and unchanged.
Bright and Clark are part of a group of four, along with Gretchen Bleiler and Hannah Teter, who have dominated women’s halfpipe competition for more than five years. To many, it is a testament to their talent and determination. But some see it as a lack of depth in the competitive field.
“It’s that same top crew all the time,” said Jamie Anderson, 18, who was named the women’s 2008 rider of the year by the magazines Transworld Snowboarding and Snowboarder.
Anderson, known for her ability in slopestyle, won her first major professional halfpipe event at the New Zealand Open in August. She did not compete in halfpipe at the United States Open after breaking her pelvis in January.
How have the same women been able to maintain their dominance?
“Pretty much because I don’t think anyone’s pushing,” Anderson said. “I kind of feel like they’ve been doing the same stuff for so long.”
A surge from Anderson and Ellery Hollingsworth, 17, who finished third in halfpipe Saturday, could help fill a competitive generation gap.
In 2008, the Winter X Games trimmed the women’s halfpipe final to 6 riders from 10. At the United States Open, the men’s halfpipe final featured 16 competitors; the women’s had eight.
The winnowing of the field has not been for a lack of opportunities. The contest calendar has become busier. Clark, 25, competed in nine events in the 10 weeks leading to the Open, finishing second at the X Games and winning at the inaugural Dew Tour, a three-stop series broadcast on NBC.
“This is the busiest year I’ve had,” said Hannah Teter, who won gold in women’s halfpipe at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, but missed the United States Open because of injury. “I went to 10 contests this year.”
Prize money for women has improved. In January, the Winter X Games joined the United States Open in providing equal winnings for men and women.
On Saturday, Bright won $20,000 by putting together her winning routine on her third and final run to bump Clark from first place. She landed five tricks, including a switch backside 720 in which she spun two full rotations, for a score of 96.0. Clark’s best score, 93.33, came on her first run.
With temperatures in the upper 30s and the halfpipe slushy, many of the women’s riders struggled to land their tricks. Elena Hight, 19, was carted off the mountain by medical personnel after hitting the deck of the 22-foot halfpipe and tumbling to the bottom. She was later released.
Bright said afterward that she was encouraged by Hollingsworth’s third-place finish.
“Ellery has been one of my favorites for a long time,” she said.
Clark agreed that the next generation of women’s riders were on the verge of breaking into the top ranks.
“Every event that I go to, I’m continually seeing women progressing to new levels,” Clark said. “There’s amazing young riders coming up in the States. There’s a bigger international field than we’ve ever seen. I think at the Olympics next year, we’re going to see some of the best female riding we’ve seen to date.”
Teter said she had seen twice as many competitors at events.
“I saw so many more girls than last year on the contest circuit at the qualifiers,” she said.
Still, the youngsters will have to learn several difficult tricks if they hope to unseat competitors like Bright.
“I definitely see the talent,” Shaun White, the 2006 Olympic gold medalist in men’s halfpipe, said of the top professional women. “Torah Bright did tricks I can’t do. I was learning tricks - switch backside 7 - she could do in the halfpipe.”
In the men’s halfpipe final Saturday, Danny Kass, 26, of Portland, Ore., won his record fifth United States Open title and first since 2005. On his final run, Kass pulled consecutive variations of 1,080 spins - four revolutions.
Peetu Piiroinen of Finland finished second and clinched the Ticket to Ride World Tour title. Luke Mitrani, 18, of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., was third.
It's an article from last year. But I like what Shaun says about Torah.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/sports/othersports/22snowboard.html?_r=1
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