Walker Tops U.S. Women at Copper Grand Prix

COPPER MOUNTAIN, CO (Dec. 22) – Sixteen-year-old Ty Walker (Stowe, VT) landed the top spot for the USA with her fourth-place finish in the Paul Mitchell Slopestyle at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix. The international field put down runs with confidence at Sunday’s FIS World Cup with Czech rider Sarka Pancochova taking the victory and Isabel Derungs and Elena Koenz of Switzerland taking second and third. Walker’s top-four result fulfilled her objective criteria for Olympic qualification, and her top finish over the Americans moved her up in the standings behind Jamie Anderson (S. Lake Tahoe, CA), who fell during both of her runs Sunday and finished seventh. After a holiday break, the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix Tour moves to Breckenridge Jan. 8-11, where the battle continues for spots on the first-ever Olympic slopestyle snowboarding team.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Sixteen-year-old Ty Walker (Stowe, VT) landed the top spot for the USA with her fourth-place finish at the Paul Mitchell Slopestyle at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix.
• The international field put down runs with confidence at Sunday’s FIS World Cup with Czech rider Sarka Pancochova taking the victory and Isabel Derungs and Elena Koenz of Switzerland taking second and third.
• Walker’s top-four result fulfilled her objective criteria for Olympic qualification, and her top finish over the Americans moved her up in the standings behind Jamie Anderson (S. Lake Tahoe, CA), who fell during both of her runs Sunday and finished seventh.
• Anderson is the only other rider that has met the top-four criteria after her victory at the Dew Tour iON Mountain Championships last weekend at Breckenridge.
• Jessika Jenson (Rigby, ID) was the only other American rider in the final, finishing eighth.
• Overall the course was running a little bit slow due to the new snow and cold, dry Colorado weather. Increasing winds in the second round also threw off many riders during the jumps.
• Walker’s fourth-place run: Frontside lip gap on the down-flat-down. frontside blunt tail press on the rainbow, indy off the cannon, backside 360, frontside 360, backside 720.
• Pancochova’s winning run: Transfer to frontside 180 off down-flat-down, switch nose slide backside 180 off the tube, switch backside 180, backside 360, frontside 540
• After a holiday break, the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix Tour moves to Breckenridge Jan. 8-11, where the battle continues for spots on the first-ever Olympic slopestyle snowboarding team.

QUOTES
Ty Walker
I was really, really happy after landing my first run. It was a little bit challenging with the speed, but I was really happy that the girls were able to finally hit the big stuff and we were able to put on a good show. I’m so stoked. The top four really just takes a huge weight off my shoulders going into the next three events.

It snowed a little bit last night so the course was a bit chalky this morning and it was kind of a struggle for speed. On my second run I definitely hit the knuckle pretty hard on a frontside 720. You had to land every jump really clean, so it really separated the good riders from the people that were kind of all over the place.

RESULTS
Women’s Official Results

STANDINGS
Official Qualification Standings

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