
Even with fresh snow on Park City Mountain Resort’s halfpipe, the Americans were able to pull off a successful day in front of the home crowd at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix snowboard halfpipe comp. Kelly Clark (West Dover, VT) took the win—her second FIS World Cup victory of the season—while Arielle Gold (Steamboat Springs, CO) was on the podium in second place. Taylor Gold (Steamboat Springs, CO) grabbed second in the men’s pipe.
The crowd lined the sides of Park City’s steep halfpipe for the men and women’s snowboard finals on Sunday afternoon, cheering on the eight Americans competing in the double-sanctioned FIS World Cup and Platinum-ranked event on the TTR World Tour. Clark took a big crash in practice earlier in the day, but put it aside and threw down an unbeatable first run. “I took a pretty hard slam in practice and got pretty rattled,” said Clark. “So to come back and land my first run after that is a pretty huge achievement.”
31-year-old Clark has had a strong history in Park City, where she won a gold medal in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. “I heard them announcing that 13 years ago was the Salt Lake Olympics. I have great memories of this place and it has a lot of big moments in my career,” said Clark, who also took the overall U.S. Grand Prix title with this win. “I’m kind of in awe when I step back and look at it that I’m still able to do well in this sport and love this sport.”
18-year-old Arielle Gold grabbed second, with a score of 88.75 behind Clark’s 94.50. She was stoked on her first run, and like Clark, nailed the podium with that attempt. “I’m just happy I put down a run that I’m comfortable with and was able to land a good run right from the start,” said Gold. Xuetong Cai of China rounded out the women’s podium in third place.
Arielle Gold’s brother, Taylor Gold, also scored a podium in the Sprint snowboarding halfpipe, second to Yiwei Zhang of China. “It’s awesome to get second here,” relayed Gold. “Yiwei totally deserved it. He did one of the biggest runs I’ve ever seen. At the top, I was like I’m going to do everything I can do. I wasn’t holding anything back.” Kent Callister of Australia was third.
But it was Zhang’s day. He had a nearly perfect run—scoring a 98 on his final attempt with a massive double cork 1260. He landed the trick in X Games, taking fourth, but this is the first time the trick led to Zhang’s first major win. Because of Zhang’s result, Gold and Zhang tied for the overall Sprint U.S. Grand Prix tour title. Although Gold didn’t nail the cab 12 he had been attempting, he is ready for it at the Burton U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships, which athletes head to on Monday. Zhang finished second to Gold’s first in the 2014 U.S. Open.
Check out the full list of results from the Snowboarding Halfpipe Finals below.
Men’s Snowboard Halfpipe – Final
Rank
|
Bib
|
Name
|
Year
|
Result
|
Level
|
Points
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 5 |
![]() |
1992 | 98.00 | 1000.00 | |
2 | 1 |
![]() |
1993 | 94.75 | 800.00 | |
3 | 3 |
![]() |
1995 | 88.50 | 600.00 | |
4 | 4 |
![]() |
1991 | 85.75 | 500.00 | |
5 | 6 |
![]() |
1994 | 85.00 | 450.00 | |
6 | 7 |
![]() |
1999 | 81.50 | 400.00 | |
7 | 9 |
![]() |
1990 | 78.25 | 360.00 | |
8 | 2 |
![]() |
1992 | 70.25 | 320.00 |
Women’s Snowboard Halfpipe – Results
Rank
|
Bib
|
Name
|
Year
|
Result
|
Level
|
Points
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 |
![]() |
1983 | 94.50 | 1000.00 | |
2 | 2 |
![]() |
1996 | 88.75 | 800.00 | |
3 | 3 |
![]() |
1993 | 80.75 | 600.00 | |
4 | 4 |
![]() |
1992 | 75.25 | 500.00 | |
5 | 6 |
![]() |
1994 | 65.75 | 450.00 |