Seven Junior World Championship Medals So Far For Team USA!

Seven Junior World Championship Medals So Far For Team USA!

Eight events into the 2018 FIS Junior Freestyle Ski & Snowboard World Championships at Cardrona Alpine Resort, and Team USA has already won seven medals, including two gold medals! The Junior World Championships continue through September 6 with team snowboard cross, team ski cross, slopestyle and halfpipe events.

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FREESKI

Forehand, Stevenson 1-2 In Big Air

Mac Forehand (Winhall, Vt.) and Ryan Stevenson (Washington, N.J.) kicked off the 2018 FIS Junior Freestyle Ski & Snowboard World Championships, winning gold and silver respectively in Sunday’s big air event at Cardrona Alpine Resort. Cody Laplante (Truckee, Calif.) just missed the podium, finishing fourth.

Huge amplitude, progressive tricks, and stomped landings propelled Forehand to the title, with a switch left triple 1620 and left double 1440 tail grab. 

“I’m feeling amazing, I’m so happy to win,” Forehand said. “On the second run I did a trick (switch triple cork 1620) I’ve only landed once before so I was so happy to land that.”

Stevenson put down a switch double cork 1440, blunt grab on run two and triple cork 1440 safety on run three, the judges rewarded him for super clean execution, long grabs and big amplitude with the silver medal.

“I’m very, very stoked,” Stevenson said. “First run I didn’t do the trick I wanted so I got a little stress out. I was stoked to land my second two runs. I’m so hyped to lace them up.”

Rounding out the podium was Spain’s Thibault Magnin taking the bronze medal with a switch left triple 12 on run one, and a flawless left triple cork 1620 on his final hit. 

In the women’s event, Russia took gold and bronze with Anastasia Tatalina taking the victory and countrywomen Lana Prusakova in third. Estonia’s Kelly Sildaru won the silver. For Team USA, Svea Irving (Winter Park, Colo.) was fifth.

Hayden Silver in Ski Cross

Fresh off a World Cup downhill mountain bike podium at Mont Saint Anne, Canada, Mazie Hayden (North Clarendon, Vt.) switched gears, continents, and many time zones to win the silver medal in ski cross at the 2018 FIS Junior Freestyle Ski & Snowboard World Championships at Cardrona Alpine Resort Monday. 

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SNOWBOARD

Vedder Gold, Molodyh Silver, Lacroix Bronze in Snowboard Cross

Jake Vedder (Pinckney, Mich.) rode away with the men’s snowboard cross gold medal, and Mike Lacroix (Shrewsbury, Mass.) took home the bronze, at the 2018 FIS Junior Freestyle Ski & Snowboard World Championships at Cardrona Alpine Resort Monday. In the women’s snowboardcross finals, Livia Molodyh (Hubbard, Ore.) won the silver medal.

Vedder was the top qualifier and simply rode away from the rest of the field, winning his opening round and cruising through the quarterfinals, semifinals and into the finals. In the finals, Vedder moved to the front from the start and escaped the carnage behind to win his first junior world title.

“I hear someone say ‘woah’ next to me, I look over and his board’s right by my head, and then we made contact going in to turn five and I went down,” said Lacroix.

Winkelmann Grabs Big Air Silver

Luke Winkelmann (Blowing Rock, N.C.) kicked off the 2018 FIS Junior Freestyle Ski & Snowboard World Championships with a silver medal in the snowboard big air, leading three Americans into the top six Sunday.

The heavy-hitting men’s big air competition opened the delayed festivities at the Winter Games NZ in hugely entertaining fashion on Sunday, with Japan’s Takeru Otsuka claiming the gold medal. Canada’s William Buffey claimed the bronze medal. Jack Coyne (Edwards, Colo.) and Dylan Okurowski (Vail, Colo.) were fifth and sixth respectively.

Heavy winds at Cardrona Alpine Resort had shut down the big air competition during its scheduled slot on Saturday, forcing it to be rescheduled to Sunday morning. However, on Sunday morning the wind persisted forcing several delays, and come noontime the competition was looking to be in danger of cancellation. 

But at the 11th hour, the winds abated and, under sunny skies on the perfectly-shaped Cardrona big air kicker, the Junior men were able to get back to work at the venue that had yielded such an impressive qualification round two days previous. 

From the outset, it was clear that it would be tough to match Otsuka despite the high-caliber of the field after the 17-year-old posted a score of 96.0 for his best jump in Friday’s qualifiers.On Sunday, Otsuka picked up right where he left off in the qualifying round, stomping a frontside triple cork 1440 on his first run before coming back in his second run and putting down a cab triple cork 1440 mute that earned a 96.4 to make it the best jump of the competition.

“The wind stopped out there and it got perfect and I just went at it,” said Winkelmann, who admitted after a putting down a simple 360 in his final run that the standard set by Otsuka was too much to chase down. “I stomped my first two runs (frontside triple cork 1440 tail grab and a switch backside triple 1260 mute) and I was super hyped with that and now I’m just stoked. I hadn’t landed my switch back 12 all day, didn’t land a single one in practice, so it’s crazy that I landed that in competition. And then I just cruised on my third run.”

The ladies’ junior big air World Championships are slated to take place later in the week after the wind also wiped out their program on Saturday. That competition is tentatively scheduled to take place on Wednesday morning. 

The 2018 FIS Junior Freestyle Ski & Snowboard World Championships continue Monday with snowboardcross finals.