Wise Clinches First Olympic Qualifier Victory

BRECKENRIDGE, CO (Dec. 15) – Two-time X Games gold medalist David Wise (Reno, NV) led a full-throttle U.S. sweep of the first-ever halfpipe skiing Olympic qualifier under the lights at the Dew Tour iON Mountain Championships Saturday night. Aaron Blunck (Crested Butte, CO) and Lyman Currier (Boulder, CO) secured the sweep after battling it out for second and third. Lead qualifier Torin Yater-Wallace (Basalt, CO) sat out the final after a crash in the practice round. All three remain in striking position as the five-stop Olympic qualification series moves to Copper Mountain for the Visa U.S. Grand Prix Presented by The North Face on Dec. 20-21.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Two-time X Games gold medalist David Wise (Reno, NV) led a full-throttle U.S. sweep of the first-ever halfpipe skiing Olympic qualifier under the lights at the Dew Tour iON Mountain Championships Saturday night.
• Aaron Blunck (Crested Butte, CO) and Lyman Currier (Boulder, CO) secured the sweep after battling it out for second and third. Currier put down his tremendous third-place run late in the final, putting him just behind Blunck and pushing Canada’s Mike Riddle off the podium.
• Lead qualifier Torin Yater-Wallace (Basalt, CO) sat out the final after a crash in the practice round, while 10-time X Games medalist Simon Dumont (Bethel, ME) also sat out the final after crashing hard in the practice round.
• Wise’s winning run: Switch right 900, switch leftside double cork 1080, rightside double cork 1260, leftside double cork 1260, alley-oop flatspin 540 and leftside cork 900.
• Blunck’s second-place run: Rightside double cork 1260 critical, leftside 1080 tail, switch rightside 720 mute, alley-oop flatspin 540 critical, rightside 1080 stalefish, switch leftside 720 Japan.
• Currier’s third-place run: Switch 720, alley-oop flatspin 540, double cork 1260, rightside 900, leftside 900 and alley-oop flatspin 720.
• Selection to the Olympic freeskiing team will be made from athletes who have two top three finishes against the entire field in the selection events. Those athletes will be ranked with their best two of five qualifying events using World Cup scoring (100 point scale) comparing only USA athletes.
• All three remain in striking position as the five-stop Olympic qualification series moves to Copper Mountain for the Visa U.S. Grand Prix Presented by The North Face on Dec. 20-21.
• Men’s slopestyle skiing finals will wrap up U.S. Freeskiing’s first-ever Olympic qualification event Sunday at 12:00 p.m. EST and will air live on NBC. All competition can also be streamed live on www.dewtour.com.

QUOTES
David Wise
I was just really having a fun time tonight skiing, so to come out on top is a huge honor. I was just glad to put down a few solid runs. It’s amazing seeing this level of skiing this early in the season.

It definitely takes some of the pressure off. If I had fallen tonight then I would have been going even more pressured into the next one. Coming down with the win tonight and getting 100 points is just an amazing start to a season.

Aaron Blunck
This is going to give me so much confidence going into the next event. Hopefully Copper will go well again and everything will work out for Sochi. Since July I’ve put in so much hard work and to have it pay off right now is so big. I couldn’t be happier.

Lyman Currier
It feels great. This is honestly so surreal right now.

RESULTS
Men’s Official Results

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