Kaya Turski triumphs in Women’s Ski Slopestyle at 2011 Winter X Games Europe
The second edition of the Winter X Games Europe (WXE) kicked off with Women’s Ski Slopestyle finals on Wednesday, the 16th of March, at Tignes, France. Canada’s Kaya Turski once again managed to shine at the big stage and walked away with her
fourth WX gold medal. America’s Keri Herman finished in second place, losing the top spot to Turski for the fourth time. Canada’s Kim Lamarre rounded out the podium after taking third place.
The 22-year-old Turski was the favourite for this year’s slopestyle title, and she lived up to the expectations. She kicked off her contest with an unimpressive first run, but followed it up with a second run, that consisted of a tight rail section and a
switch 720 mute grab off the last jump, that earned her an unbeatable score of 89.66 and sealed the fate of the contest. She further improved on her winning score with a score of 92.00 in her victory lap.
In her post-contest interview, Turski said, “I was really glad my second run came together after that first run. I'm stoked.”
Turski had clinched the Slopestyle titles at the previous two WX at Aspen as well as last year’s WXE at Tignes. This year, she successfully defended her title on the same course that had ripped apart her knee on the final jump of her victory lap.
The 28-year-old Herman had an impressive first run, but even though she managed to improve on it later, it was still not enough and she found herself sitting at second place after earning her best score of 89.00 in her third run. This is not the first time
that she’s found herself one place behind Turski.
“I'm starting to learn that second is my place,” Herman said. “I'm still really happy to be in second.”
Canada’s 22-year-old Lamarre found herself in the lead after the first run. However, she lost the lead to Turski after the second runs, and got pushed down even further by Herman’s third run. She did however make it to her first ever WX podium after finishing
third. Her best score was 88.33 which she earned in her third run that included a backside switch up over the rail gap and a 540.
“I was under a bit of pressure after that first run,” Lamarre said. “I knew for sure Kaya was going to land a run, so I just tried to keep focused and try to improve my score on my other runs.”
Some of the skiers complained that the course was not completely ready for the contest and still had a few issues left which made it difficult for them to nail their runs. Not even a single skier hit the last jump of the six-feature Slopestyle course as
the course did not offer enough speed to the skiers.
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