Kaya Turski clinches women’s ski slopestyle gold at Winter X Games Aspen 2012
Canada’s Kaya Turski asserted her dominance in the women’s ski slopestyle at Winter X Games Aspen 2012 to walk away with the gold medal for the third year in a row on Thursday, January 26, at Aspen, Colorado.
If the three-peat was not enough to send the Canadian on cloud nine, then earning the boasting rights for becoming the first woman to land a switch 1080 at Winter X Games would have definitely done the trick.
Even though the Canadian freeskier was being considered as the favourite in women’s ski slopestyle, it was Australia’s Anna Segal who stole the show early in the contest by putting on a 90.00 on the score-board off her first run.
Turski failed to challenge her Australian rival’s first-run score for most part of the contest despite scoring above 88 off both her first and second run.
Coming down to the final run of the women’s ski slopestyle, the Montreal-based skier found herself sitting in third place, behind Segal and the new leader Devin Logan. Turski knew she had to produce a near-perfect run to overtake her two competitors.
Kicking off her third and final run, Turski executed her tricks neatly on the rails and first two jumps. Soaring into the air off the third jump, she pulled off a perfect switch 1080, leaving the crowd and judges stunned. Earning a 95.00 from her third run,
Turski found herself climbing to the top of the podium, thus clinching yet another gold medal.
“My first two runs weren't as clean as I wanted them to be, so I just decided to go for the 10,” said Turski. “It didn't hurt that I was sitting in third place already so I had a medal. That kind of eased it and I just went for it.”
Logan, whose best-run featured a cork 720 and a couple of 540s, eventually had to settle for runner-up place and therefore walk away with the silver medal.
After enjoying the lead for most part of the contest due to an excellent first run, Segal found herself moving down the podium as Turski and Logan went through their final run. The Australian freeskier eventually took home the bronze medal.
Turski continued her domination of the sport at the latest edition of Winter X Games, though she came pretty close to losing her streak. It would be interesting to see if she manages to defend her title next year of succumbs to one of the many extremely
talented freeskiers in the field.
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