LAKE PLACID, N.Y. Friday Jan. 22nd — The United States women went 1-2-3-4 in Thursday's World Cup moguls event Thursday in Lake Placid, N.Y.
“And seventh and 13th,” added Vail's Heidi Kloser.
Right you are, young lady. Kloser, 17 years old , finished 13th, making a trip to the finals of a World Cup event for the second time in her third career start Thursday. After taking 16th in Deer Valley, Utah, last week, 13th is new best in a very short, but successful career for Kloser.
“I don't know. I felt I was skiing well enough,” she said. “I'm not really surprised. I'm just happy.”
Not only was it exciting that Kloser was in the points again for the second time in as many weeks, but that she did so in Lake Placid. Teams are required to submit their Olympic rosters on Monday for Vancouver, British Columbia, and while the 2010 Games are not on the radar for Kloser, she was skiing against fellow racers trying to pile on to their point totals.
“You could tell people were stressed out,” Kloser said. “There were people trying to make their Olympic teams. I was treating it as just another competition.”
It was just another competition for Kloser, but the course and the snow were different — flatter and icier than she was used to — so she had to adjust. Getting speed going into her opening back full (a back flip with a full twist) was a little harder.
“It was a lot flatter and kind of icy hard. It was a challenge,” Kloser said. “The flatter run made the moguls drop off a little more.”
She ended her first run with her traditional back flip- X (crossing her skis while inverted) , finishing the first round in 14th, with two spots to spare for moving on to the finals. Each skier skis a qualifying run and the top 16 women and men advance on in there respective categories. In Freestyle skiing the women ski the same course as the men. The course has several lane options that the skiers choose from, they are typically 200 plus meters in length with a slope pitch of 25 degrees or more and include two aerial jumps in the length of the course. Having a little help perhaps from skiing third in the finals, the skiers start the finals in reverse order of how they qualified, Kloser's second run was 2 seconds faster that her first, and that helped her execute her game plan better. In her qualifying round, she was the last skier on the start list to ski and the course had deteriorated as skier after skier came down.
While Hannah Kearney, Shannon Barhrke, Heather McPhie stormed the podium, Kloser in just her third World Cup competition, nudged herself up two spots from 34th to 32nd in the world.
World Cup moguls are done until after the Olympics. The next stop is Inawshiro, Japan, in March. Kloser, as a younger skier on the national team, will understandably not likely make that trip. She'll be working on her international points in Nor-Am races in both the US and Canada.
Kloser will be skiing at this year's first two Nor-Am competitions, back in Lake Placid on Jan. 28, and then heads to Killington, Vt., in early February.
Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934 or via cfreud@vaildaily.com. Photo by Dan Campbell http://www.dancampbellphotography.com/.
“And seventh and 13th,” added Vail's Heidi Kloser.
Right you are, young lady. Kloser, 17 years old , finished 13th, making a trip to the finals of a World Cup event for the second time in her third career start Thursday. After taking 16th in Deer Valley, Utah, last week, 13th is new best in a very short, but successful career for Kloser.
“I don't know. I felt I was skiing well enough,” she said. “I'm not really surprised. I'm just happy.”
Not only was it exciting that Kloser was in the points again for the second time in as many weeks, but that she did so in Lake Placid. Teams are required to submit their Olympic rosters on Monday for Vancouver, British Columbia, and while the 2010 Games are not on the radar for Kloser, she was skiing against fellow racers trying to pile on to their point totals.
“You could tell people were stressed out,” Kloser said. “There were people trying to make their Olympic teams. I was treating it as just another competition.”
It was just another competition for Kloser, but the course and the snow were different — flatter and icier than she was used to — so she had to adjust. Getting speed going into her opening back full (a back flip with a full twist) was a little harder.
“It was a lot flatter and kind of icy hard. It was a challenge,” Kloser said. “The flatter run made the moguls drop off a little more.”
She ended her first run with her traditional back flip- X (crossing her skis while inverted) , finishing the first round in 14th, with two spots to spare for moving on to the finals. Each skier skis a qualifying run and the top 16 women and men advance on in there respective categories. In Freestyle skiing the women ski the same course as the men. The course has several lane options that the skiers choose from, they are typically 200 plus meters in length with a slope pitch of 25 degrees or more and include two aerial jumps in the length of the course. Having a little help perhaps from skiing third in the finals, the skiers start the finals in reverse order of how they qualified, Kloser's second run was 2 seconds faster that her first, and that helped her execute her game plan better. In her qualifying round, she was the last skier on the start list to ski and the course had deteriorated as skier after skier came down.
While Hannah Kearney, Shannon Barhrke, Heather McPhie stormed the podium, Kloser in just her third World Cup competition, nudged herself up two spots from 34th to 32nd in the world.
World Cup moguls are done until after the Olympics. The next stop is Inawshiro, Japan, in March. Kloser, as a younger skier on the national team, will understandably not likely make that trip. She'll be working on her international points in Nor-Am races in both the US and Canada.
Kloser will be skiing at this year's first two Nor-Am competitions, back in Lake Placid on Jan. 28, and then heads to Killington, Vt., in early February.
Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934 or via cfreud@vaildaily.com. Photo by Dan Campbell http://www.dancampbellphotography.com/.
