Clark and White Top Dew Tour Qualifiers

BRECKENRIDGE, CO (Dec. 12) – Olympic gold medalists Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA) and Kelly Clark (West Dover, VT) took the top spots in the men’s and women’s halfpipe qualifiers at the Dew Tour iON Mountain Championships, which opened the Olympic qualification series for U.S. Snowboarding. On Thursday, rookie halfpipe team athlete Ben Ferguson (Bend, OR) qualified third with a strong core of American riders headed to the final. On Wednesday, Clark led a U.S. Snowboarding sweep in the halfpipe qualifier, with thirteen-year-old rookie Chloe Kim (La Palma, CA) outscoring World Champion Arielle Gold (Steamboat Springs, CO) by over two points. Wednesday also marked the start of the first-ever Olympic qualification for slopestyle snowboarding, where U.S. athlete Jamie Anderson took the top spot. On Friday, the men hit the hill for the slopestyle qualifier at 11:30 a.m. MST and the women compete in the slopestyle final at 3:00 p.m. MST. All competition can be streamed live on www.dewtour.com.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Olympic gold medalists Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA) and Kelly Clark (West Dover, VT) took the top spots in the men’s and women’s halfpipe qualifiers at the Dew Tour iON Mountain Championships, which opened the Olympic qualification series for U.S. Snowboarding.
• On Thursday, rookie halfpipe team athlete Ben Ferguson (Bend, OR) qualified third with a strong core of American riders headed to the halfpipe final including the returning American favorite Danny Davis, Greg Bretz (Mammoth Lakes, CA), Louie Vito (Sandy, UT) and rookie Taylor Gold (Steamboat Springs, CO).
• On Wednesday, Clark led a U.S. Snowboarding sweep in the women's halfpipe qualifier, with thirteen-year-old rookie Chloe Kim (La Palma, CA) outscoring World Champion Arielle Gold (Steamboat Springs, CO) by over two points.
• Although too young to qualify for the Olympics, Kim led the qualifier with a McTwist to crippled 720 combo before Clark edged out Kim with back-to-back 720s.
• USA boasts six out of the eight women advancing to the halfpipe final.
• Wednesday also marked the start of the first-ever Olympic qualification for slopestyle snowboarding, where U.S. athlete Jamie Anderson took the top spot and U.S. Snowboarding rookies Jordie Karlinski (Snowmass Village, CO) and Jessika Jenson (Rigby, ID) qualified sixth and seventh.
• The top 16 men and top eight women advance to their respective slopestyle and halfpipe finals this weekend.
• Bluebird skies and warm winter temperatures in the mid 20s made for ideal conditions for competition this week.
• On Friday, the men hit the hill for the slopestyle qualifier at 11:30 a.m. MST and the women compete in the slopestyle final at 3:00 p.m. MST. All competition can be streamed live on www.dewtour.com.
• Click here for a full schedule of the Dew Tour iON Mountain Championships in Breckenridge.

QUOTES
Kelly Clark
Every Olympic year we see an increase in the progression of women’s snowboarding and that was what happened here today. All the women rode amazing. I was happy to get those early season contest jitters out of the way. In the first contest of the year, let alone an Olympic year, there can be a pretty big buildup for it so I was happy to come out today, get over that and really come through on my second run.

Arielle Gold
I’m really excited that I was able to put down a run and sneak into finals. If anything I’m just going to try and land an even better run and just charge harder, but hopefully not think too much about it and just keep enjoying it.

This is my first Olympic qualifier round and it’s definitely a little bit stressful. I’ve been kind of nervous, but I’m glad to get this first qualifier out of the way. I definitely feel a lot better now.

Greg Bretz
The halfpipe is absolutely perfect and it was an extremely good qualifier round. Everyone was throwing down. I’m super stoked that I made it through to finals, so I hope that goes well Saturday.

RESULTS
Men’s Halfpipe Results
Women’s Halfpipe Results
Women’s Slopestyle Results

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