The first stop of the U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix hit Copper Mountain, Co., after a raging storm left enough snow to make an already great superpipe totally awesome. But in the women's qualifiers, it was only awesome for the Americans.The usual suspects prevailed. Among those riding in Saturday's finals will be top qualifier and Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark, who was closely followed by Elena Hight, then X Games gold medalist Gretchen Bleiler, then rookie Kait Farrington, whose run outpointed Hannah Teter, followed by a true rising star, ninth-grader Maddy Shaffrick of Steamboat, Co.
The only non-American in that bunch was Soko Yamaoka of Japan, who qualified fourth.
The top eight women and top 16 men qualify, out of a total field of 90 men and 40 women. In the men's qualifiers, non-Americans dominated the top slots. In order of points, men qualifiers included Janne Korpi, Finland; Antti Autti, Finland; Ryoh Aono, Japan; top American Louis Vito, from Ohio yet; Brad Martin, Canada, Kohhei Kudoh, Japan; and Americans Danny Davis, Steven Fisher, Broc Waring, and Thomas Jarrett who will compete with the rest of the qualifiers.
There are three stops in this year's Grand Prix; Copper Mountain, California's Boreal, Jan 29-Feb 1; and finally Killington, in Vermont, March 14-15. The total prize purse for this, the 13th annual Grand Prix, is a whopping $300,000, with relatively new names like Shaffrick and Vito expected to shine.
The well-run event drew the largest international field in its history; 185 athletes from 17 countries. Part of that is because this is a pre-Olympic year; athletes are trying to prove themselves for selection to their national Olympic team for the Vancouver 2010 Games. In fact, the results from this season's Grand Prix are one of the criteria that U. S. snowboard team coaches will use to select the riders for Vancouver.
