U.S. Women Dominate Grand Prix Qualis

COPPER MOUNTAIN, CO (Dec. 11) - U.S. women dominated the international competition Thursday as they took seven of the eight qualification spots for the halfpipe finals at the U.S. Snownboarding Grand Prix, presented by Sprint, at Copper Mountain.

The U.S. Snowboarding all-stars who will appear in the pipe Saturday are Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark (West Dover, VT), Olympian Elena Hight (South Lake Tahoe, CA), X Games gold medalist Gretchen Bleiler (Aspen, CO), Olympic gold medalist Hannah Teter (Belmont, VT), Grand Prix podium performer and Copper Mountain athlete Clair Bidez (Minturn, CO), and rookies Kaitlyn Farrington (Bellevue, ID) and Maddline Schaffrick (Steamboat Springs, CO).

Soko Yamaoka of Japan was the only international rider to make finals.

Men's qualifications begin Friday at 9:00 a.m. MT.

The U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix will be webcast live onSaturday at 11:00 a.m. MT.

"Sprint is a fabulous partner of U.S. Snowboarding and we're excited to be showcasing their brand and technology at snowboarding's biggest event series in the world," said USSA Vice President, Sales and Marketing Ted Morris. Sprint has been a USSA partner since 1993

Sprint will be on board for the Dec. 12-13 Grand Prix at Copper Mountain, as well as the big season finale Mar. 13-15 at Vermont's Killington resort.

The Grand Prix has made a significant mark in snowboarding providing the launching pad for 14 U.S. Olympic medalists in just three Olympics. The 2009-10 Grand Prix will be the halfpipe qualifying series for the U.S. Olympic Team.

The opening Grand Prix will feature one of the strongest international fields in history, with 20 nations expected to compete in the Copper Mountain superpipe with qualifying Thursday, Dec. 11 and Friday, Dec. 12 and finals Saturday, Dec. 13.

The opening event field at Copper Mountain will include Olympic medalists Hannah Teter (Belmont, VT), Kelly Clark (West Dover, VT), Gretchen Bleiler (Aspen, CO), X Games medalists Steve Fisher (Breckenridge, CO) and Scotty Lago (Seabrook, NH), and the men's 2008 Grand Prix overall champion Louie Vito (Sandy, UT). Olympic champion Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA) and Bleiler opened last year's Grand Prix with wins.

The event will be broadcast on NBC Sports on Sunday, Dec. 14 at 2:00 p.m. ET, and will be carried live on Go211.com at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, Dec. 13. Versus will carry the superpipe Dec. 27 at 5:00 P.M. ET.

Fan can also watch highlights on their Sprint mobile phones. Sprint's SnowZone (text SNOW to 7777 for access) offers free ski and snowboarding information such as snow reports, athlete bios and more, including video highlights of the Grand Prix.

A chance to train on an actual snowboardcross course is rare, but four-time X Games gold medalist Nate Holland (Squaw Valley, CA), along with the U.S. Snowboarding snowboardcross crew and some ski cross athletes are taking advantage of an opportunity to ride competition terrain in Telluride, and are taking all the time they can get on the rollers, turns and jumps before the season gets going. Read on for what Nate has to say about training in Telluride.

So what's it like for you to be training in Telluride?

I'm totally stoked to be here. They've got great snow here and the course that they've built is two sections with two separate start gates. So, every run we get two separate courses and two separate starts. It's pretty cool to be back on snow with all the guys.

You're training with ski cross athletes as well. Is that new?

This is our first integrated camp with the ski cross athletes. It's cool to see those guys out and about. We get to see what they're doing and what tricks they have up their sleeve. We're asking them questions and they're asking us questions to become better riders all around.

Do you think the things you and the ski cross athletes learn from each other can help improve the way you ride?

Yes, absolutely. It's a way to think outside the box in our sport. To ask them questions and to get their feedback and their take on things helps us to think about what we're doing and how we're training just a little bit differently. And vice versa. To apply it to our training is definitely helpful.

What are you working on while you are in Telluride?

Personally, I'm breaking in my legs and getting them used to riding for the season. And, just being able to be on a course allows my mind to get into race mode and to look at the course and where fast lines are and what I can do to make a feature faster. In addition to that, I'm doing some equipment testing. I'm fine tuning everything.

Are you testing the equipment on the bunny hill with all the kids?

Yeah, I'm kinda pushing them all down and showing them who's the boss on the bunny hill. I don't mess with anyone who's older than seven.

Did you put in a lot of gym time before heading to train in Telluride?

I have. I think I'll get in the groove a lot faster from being in the gym this summer. I'll be able to knock the rust off a little quicker than I have in the past. Traditionally my best results have come middle to late season, so I'm hoping that I'll get in the groove of racing earlier and be strong early.

So, what else have you done in Telluride?

We've done some freeriding, but they're about to open up a bunch of new stuff. The mountain here is great. The managers came out and saw us today. Telluride is totally rolling out the red carpet for us as far as space for our courses, trying to get us into closed areas for freeriding, and everything. It's the beginning of a good relationship and I think we could easily find an early-season home here.

"They have built us an amazing training course that has two different sections with great jumps and banks. It's totally world-class training," U.S. Snowboarding Head Coach Peter Foley said. "We're super stoked to be here. The partnership that we're having with Telluride is just amazing. We're getting better training than anyone in the world right now - by far."

Athletes training the setup in Telluride include Olympic gold medalist Seth Wescott (Sugarloaf, ME), Olympic silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton Mountain, VT), X-Games champion and four-time Olympian Casey Puckett (Aspen, CO), World Cup icon and X Games champion Daron Rahlves (Sugar Bowl, CA), four-time X Games gold medalist Nate Holland (Squaw Valley, CA), Jeep King of the Mountain champion and snowboarding legend Shaun Palmer (South Lake Tahoe, CA), and World Cup winners Nick Baumgartner (Iron River, MI) and Graham Watanabe (Sun Valley, ID).

In its first year as a team, not to mention being the newest Olympic sport, the ski cross squad is excited to be part of a camp that provides them the opportunity to train on course features as well as learn from their snowboardcross counterparts.

"They made two wonderful sections. The athletes are getting in a ton of laps and a ton of practice on the starts. The athletes are really all pumped on it," said Ski Cross Head Coach Tyler Shepherd. "People are talking to each other and asking how they do their starts and I think as we move further into the camp we'll see even more communication between each other in terms of what kind of lines are being taken and stuff like that.

"It's just a mutual respect for each other because you're both here trying to do the same thing and get a lot accomplished."

According to ski cross racer Rahlves, Telluride has gone above and beyond to make the athletes feel at home.

"They're definitely putting in the effort to accommodate us with hill space and allow us to get done what we need to get done. It's a great spot and a beautiful place to be," Rahlves said.

"They've rolled out the red carpet here. They just continue to ask 'what can we do for you' so it's been great so far," Shepherd said.

From the top to bottom, the cross course has two start sections for athletes to work on their starting technique, as well as a number of rollers, turns other features to get the athletes in ready to race.

"I really like having camps where you can ride on actual cross courses. We've always just done freeriding to get our bodies ready and all our equipment tuned up, but we've never had a course we've been able to ride top to bottom," said Jacobellis. "If I've done really well with just going to competitions, imagine the things that I can learn from just having a course to train on a week before going to a competition."

For Telluride, the training is much more than a one-time deal - it hopes to be able to host a World Cup stop for ski and snowboardcross in the future.

"I think that they're looking to be partners with world-class athletes and help them succeed. They're showing that Telluride is a world-class place to ski and snowboard," Foley said.

"I hope it happens. They seem very excited to have the opportunity to host the world cup and I think it's a great resort to do it at," Shepherd said.

The athletes will remain in Telluride for the week before the snowboardcross squad heads to Switzerland for a World Cup on Dec. 20. Ski cross begins its World Cup tour on Jan. 5 in Austria.