Sammy Carlson accomplishes his first Slopestyle gold at Winter X Games 15
The stylish skier from Oregon, Sammy Carlson, earned his first Winter X gold after winning the men’s ski Slopestyle finals at Winter X Games 15 (WX 15) in Aspen, Colorado. Australian Russ Henshaw secured the silver medal. Norwegian Andreas Håtveit walked
away with the bronze.
Sammy Carlson had landed himself on the podium three times already prior to this year’s competition, winning silver in 2007-09, and bronze in 2010. However, he had never gotten an opportunity to boast the throne. While talking to ESPN before the start of
this year’s mega event, Carlson mentioned that a WX gold medal topped his list of unfulfilled goals.
29th of January brought a change to Carlson’s list. The goal sitting at the top of the list had just been accomplished.
“It's been so long,” Carlson said. “I've wanted this since I was a little kid. I've got my whole family here with me. Nothing feels better than this.”
Carlson, making his sixth WX appearance, kicked off the finals with a sensational first run. This run comprised of a 360 drag over the joystick feature, 450 followed by 630 off the rainbow rail, a double rodeo 9, a switch double rodeo 9, and a double cork
10 on his jumps. However, It was his prowess at the rail that gave him the edge in the contest. Ending up with a score of 93.33 in his first run which remained unbeaten till the end, Carlson harvested his first gold medal.
Russ Henshaw, who had dominated in the elimination round, found his way to the podium this year by producing an epic first run for a score of 90.66 and clinching the silver. A left double cork 12 to switch left double 9 to right double cork 12 embodied this
first run that earned him his first WX medal. Henshaw had occupied the fifth slot in last year’s showdown.
While everyone else gave an extremely unimpressive third run, experiencing difficulty to cope with speed considering the sun had sunk below the horizon and the course was covered in shade, one skier managed to pull off a stunner. It was none other than Andreas
Håtveit, the Norwegian who had ended up second in last year’s WX Slopestyle faceoff. This time he walked away with bronze after throwing a flurry of mind boggling tricks in his third run and receiving a score of 90.00. These tricks included a misty 450 off
the rainbow rail and opting for four jumps instead of three , a switch right 10, to switch left 12, to deep left double cork 10 double japan to right double cork 12.
Håtveit’s magic in his final run pushed last year’s skiing icon and WX gold medalist, Bobby Brown, to the fourth place. Brown’s earned 89.33 in his first run, which he failed to improve in his preceding runs.
Sammy Carlson shone at this year’s Slopestyle with his stylish moves and adeptness at the rails. The 22-year-old is still in the early years of his career and we can safely assume that he would continue to strike us with awe in the following years.
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