Dear Interweb
The European Open is one of the best events of the year as the courses are in perfect condition, the mountain and town are beautiful and the parties are amazing. Plus, accomodation and meals are provided for the invited athletes, which is always a nice change.
Here is my coach Trennon’s report:
Laax, SUI
Fresh off a third place finish at the World Cup final event in France, team member Rosalind Groenewoud carried her momentum into Switzerland for the European Freeskiing Open.
Starting the week in the slopestyle event, Roz qualified easily, and then threw a couple of highly technical runs in the final, which consisted of a switch 540 to a 720 to a 900. Showing that she is a truly well-rounded athlete, Roz placed 4th in the slopestyle final, just missing the podium by 0.5 points, and proving that she is much more than just a “halfpipe specialist”.
On to the halfpipe finals, where Roz once again landed a couple of fantastic runs, putting together a complete package of amplitude, technical difficulty (right 540, left 540 and switch 540), and grabs. When the final scores came in, Roz was awarded 3rd place, her second halfpipe podium result in less than a week!
Our team was also represented at the European Open by Mike Riddle in the mens events. Unfortunately Mike had a bad crash in the semifinal, and suffered a concussion which rendered him unable to compete any further. Mike is healing fast and should be in good shape to ski at our final event of the season, which will take place in Whistler in April.
First hit!
Podium for Halfpipe! (I'm making a funny face...)
Sincerely,
RozG
Post-Script: After the halfpipe event, my awesome roommates, Kaya Turski and Jess Cumming, and I hosted an amazing girls-only party. It’s always fun to hang out with a bunch of wonderful ski girls!
Kaya, Jess and I rock our sunglasses at night!
Left to Right: Whitney Wickes, Mirjam Jaeger, Sofie Winsdet, Me!, Em Lonsdale, Jess Cumming, Kaya Turski, Keri herman, Claudia Bouvier, Anais Caradeux
Dear Interweb,
Just like last year, Team Canada managed to compete in two events in different countries at the same time: The European Freeskiing Open and World Cup Final. Though it was chaotic, it was worthwhile and a lot of fun. (Check back for how we did it and a report on the Euro Open)
Here is Trennon’s Report from the WC:
La Plagne, France
Every season, the FIS World Cup Tour is capped off by the World Cup Final, which took place this year in the beautiful French Alps.
Due to some injuries, the Canadian Halfpipe team was down in numbers for this event, with 2 athletes, Rosalind Groenewoud and Mike Riddle, carrying the torch for the team.
The halfpipe was in great condition, and the top athletes from the World Cup standings were all taking full advantage of it. One thing that stood out more than anything at this event was the crowd! Multitudes of fans were packed around the halfpipe, and their energy level was beyond belief! Screaming their heads off, blowing airhorns, and waving pom-poms, the super stoked crowd (many of whom even had painted their faces the colors of the French flag) went off like a rock concert every time somebody dropped in for their run.
In the start gate...
Mike Riddle had a rough go in training, as he was still not fully recovered from a brutal fall at the World Championships in Japan earlier this month. Despite not finishing a run in training, he was able to make it through the pipe in the event, and even though he had some wobbles on the way down, still managed to pull off a respectable 5th place finish. The mens’ event was won by hometown favorite Kevin Rolland of France, closely followed by David Wise of the USA in 2nd. Nils Lauper of Switzerland finished in 3rd.
Rosalind Groenewoud was on her game right from the start of training, hitting some of the biggest airs of the competition, and showing a lot of technical diversity by including left and right spins, as well as switch spins, in her run. When the final scores were announced, Roz ended up in 3rd, adding another World Cup medal to her growing collection. The womens’ event was won by Anais Caradeux of France, with 2nd place going to Virginie Faivre of Switzerland.
After the medal's ceremony with my cute trophy and my flowers
I could write my own report, but my coach Trennon put it so nicely that I’m just going to use his for now:
Northstar at Tahoe, CA Sunday marked the end of the inaugural Winter Dew Tour season, with the final day of competition. Sunday’s events were the snowboarding Mens and Womens Superpipe, as well as the final event for our team, the Womens Ski Superpipe.
Unlike the perfect weather that we had been treated to earlier, we woke up Sunday morning to the sound of rain coming down, and when we arrived at the hill we were greeted with more of the same, mixed with some very wet snow. This did not seem to deter either the competitors, or the crowds, who showed up ready to brave the weather for a chance to watch the best in the World perform.
Team member Rosalind Groenewoud was on her game from the moment the pipe opened for training, and did not let the conditions slow her down one bit. If anything, she was launching higher out of the pipe than ever before. In her first run she put down the most technical run of the competition, spinning both left and right 540s, and adding switch landings as well as switch spins to her run. Her score came in just under Mirjam Jager of Switzerland, and at the end of the first run she was sitting in 2nd place.
I'm going to say that this is 13-14 feet out...
On the second run Roz went even bigger, but had a bit of a washout on one of her 540s, so it was her first run score that held through. While the other women put down some great runs, nobody but Mirjam Jager was able to eclipse Roz’s first run score, giving Roz 2nd place, and her first Dew Tour podium!
The podium was an international affair, with Switzerland, Canada, and France taking the top 3 positions.
Myself, Mirjam and Anais
Top 5 results:
1 - Mirjam Jager (SUI) 2 - Rosalind Groenewoud (CAN) 3 - Anais Caradeux (FRA) 4 - Jessica Cumming (USA) 5 - Angelie Van Laanen (USA)
The top 3 runs were shown later in the day on NBC’s Sunday Afternoon Sports Update. I’m going to try to track down the show to post here!
My coach, Trennon Paynter, writes a report after every event for our individual sponsors, families and team supporters. Here’s his report from this weekend about the women’s events:
Mt Snow, VT, USA
The second stop of the Dew Tour was a busy one for the team on Saturday, with the women’s superpipe and slopestyle competitions being held during the day, followed by the men’s superpipe final in the evening.
Starting off the day in the women’s superpipe event were team members Sarah Burke and Rosalind Groenewoud. While both of them skied impressively, and threw 900s in their runs, they each had problems at some point during their runs, and did not end up with the kind of score that they would have gotten with a clean performance. However, even with the mistakes, they still finished 3rd (Sarah) and 4th (Roz). Roz competed a switch down pipe 540 for the first time.
Sarah and me at the top of the pipe
Not wasting any time, Sarah switched equipment and headed over to the slopestyle course for the womens event which began only a half hour after finishing the superpipe event. The slopestyle course was one of the best in recent memory, and all of the girls threw down what was likely the highest level of womens skiing ever seen in a slopestyle event.
Sarah’s jump line was without a doubt the most impressive of the field, she laid down a switch rightside 540, a 360, a 720, and beautiful, grabbed, and stomped 900 on the final booter to finish it off. While none of the other girls matched Sarah on the jumps, a couple of them got incredibly technical on the rail sections, and as a result, moved ahead of Sarah, leaving her with her second 3rd place result of the day.
Stay tuned for more Trennon updates!
