Nick Goepper bags 2011 Dumont Cup win - Skiing
The third edition of the Dumont Cup went down at the Sunday River Ski Resort in Maine, USA, on Saturday, March 26. Undaunted by the challenging weather conditions and intimidating line up,
Nick Goepper managed to land the most impressive run of the day to clinch the title. Finishing in second place was Gus Kenworthy from USA while Sweden’s Jacob Wester rounded out the podium.
The conditions were less than ideal for the annual professional and amateur slopestyle event that is held at the home mountain of professional freeskier Simon Dumont. Erratic, swirling headwinds
and tailwinds made riding challenging, let along pulling technical tricks. As the conditions got worse, the judges made the third run optional in order to prevent any undesirable incident. Hence the skiers now just had to two runs to impress the judges. The
extreme weather was not going to make the job easy.
Barely missing out on the podium at last years’ event, Goepper had returned for vengeance. The contest was never going to be a walk in the park as the likes of Dumont and other 80 talented
skiers were participating in the event. However, the Indiana-based amateur skier had no intention of letting big names walk over him. He managed to throw down a sensational first run to earn an unbeatable score of 92.4. The run included a flawless switch double
rodeo 900 to a double cork 1080. The win allowed Goepper to take home a $12,000 cash prize along with the boasting rights of beating Dumont in his own backyard. This was his second big win since finishing in third place at the Killington Dew Tour in January
this year.
"I'm really stoked," Goepper said. "I skied my best and the weather held a little bit on my run."
Kenworthy managed to impress the judges with his huge double flips and other impressive tricks to earn a score of 90.0 and finish up in second place. He took home $5000 in cash.
Sweden’s Wester also exhibited his skills and talents, landing huge double flips and other stylish stunts, to take finish in third place and take to $3000 cash prize.
This is a second year in a row that a relatively unknown skier has been able to triumph over the professionals during the Dumont Cup. Last year an amateur Alex Schlopy from Park City managed
to accomplish the feat of besting some of the most talented skiers in the world to take home win. After getting his first major breakthrough, Schlopy had went on to make quite a name for himself in the freestyle community, his latest accomplishments including
the Winter X Games 15 Big Air gold medal earlier this year at Aspen, wins at a Dew Tour event and the International Skiing Federation (FIS) Freestyle World Championships. He was not competing in the Dumont Cup this year due to illness.
It remains to be seen whether Goepper manages to walk into Schlopy’s footsteps and climb the ladder of success after clinching the highest podium spot at the slopestyle event this weekend.
Expectations are high from him and only time will tell whether he is able to live up to the hype that has suddenly surrounded him.
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