RESULTS: World Pro Ski Tour Men's & Women's Super Slalom

It was a great day of racing at Aspen Mountain today. Despite a winter storm warning and some windy conditions, the course held up well in the cold weather and spectators were treated to competitive race bracket on both the men's and women's Colorado Pro Open races, presented by Mazda.

The Colorado Pro Open, presented by Mazda offered many familiar faces on the women's side, as well as some newcomers, representing seven different countries. 2023 Tour Champion, Erin Mielzynski, qualified with the fastest time yesterday and earned a bye for the first round. Kaitlyn Harsch, who has spent the last weeks in Europe racing FIS, also qualified for a bye. No major surprises through the round of 8, with Erin Mielzynski (CAN), Tuva Norbye (NOR), Sara Rask (SWE) and Kaitlyn Harsch (USA)advancing to the semi-finals.

The semi-final round between SportsInsurance.com teammates Mielzynski and Norbye had a first run that granted Mielzynski a max differential of .75 seconds and that allowed Mielzynski to ski a strong second run into the finals.

Sara Rask met Kaitlyn Harsch, who skiied smoothly and consistently in the las two days to handily eliminate Rask to met Mielzynski in the finals.

In the small final, Rask defeated Norbye, and they came in third and fourth, respectively.

The big question of the day was whether Harsch, showing a much more aggressive style than she has in previous WPST races, could take down the reigning women's champ, Mielzynski. While the first run showed competitive promise, Harsch made little bobble in the second run that gave Mielzynski the advantage, and Harsch blew through the second to last gate panel attempting to overcome the deficit. Mielzynski held her $10,000 check high on the podium as the first 2024 season race winner.

Similar to the women, the men's field showed a great mix of Tour regulars and newcomers alike. The surprise of the morning was the scratch of David Ketterer (GER) who sat out for a back strain after finishing in the top five at yesterday's qualifiers. Czech's Filip Forejtek laid down the speediest run in qualifiers and set a dominant tone starting with today's round of 16. Tour veterans Michael Ankeny and Florian Szwebel, both of the USA, also skied well and advanced along the bracket.

Quarterfinals saw an upset of 2023 Tour Champion, Simon Breitfuss-Kammerlander (AUT) by Norway's Christian Soevik, who is currently skiing for the University of Denver. Soevik, in his Rookie year, showed his lack of experience in the gates during his first run against SBK, but discussed his strategy with a teammate and flew out of the gate in his second run to progress to the semi-finals. Also moving on were Forejtek, Szwebel and Ankeny.

The semi-final round saw the dominate Forejtek and Soevik advance to meet in the finals, while Szwebel and Ankeny faced off in the small final. Ankeny rode the pony to a 3rd place finish over his friend and fellow longtime Tour competitor, Szwebel.

Finals between Soevik and Forejtek showed the rookie Soevik continue his strong skiing in his WPST debut, sending him home with a $10,000 big check from Mazda.