Storm Nixes Grand Prix Finals
BRECKENRIDGE, CO (Jan. 11) – Challenging weather conditions from a weekend storm that dumped eight inches of new snow on the venue at Breckenridge have forced a variety of cancelations and postponements at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix. The International Ski Federation jury for freeskiing has moved the halfpipe skiing event to Sunday at 9:30 a.m. MST. The FIS jury for snowboarding has canceled the halfpipe and snowboarding events, which will not be scored. The decision was made after assessing the circumstances and taking feedback from both riders and sanctioning partners FIS and TTR. The competitions were the third of five Olympic selection events.
HIGHLIGHTS
- The Sprint U.S. Grand Prix halfpipe and Paul Mitchell Slopestyle snowboarding finals scheduled Saturday and Sunday have been canceled due to challenging weather conditions at the venue. The FIS jury has ruled that the events will not be scored.
- The competitions were sanctioned as both TTR 5-Star level and FIS events. Neither FIS nor TTR rules specify use of qualifying round results as official. Based on that, the jury ruled accordingly to cancel and not score.
- The halfpipe skiing event, which had been moved to Saturday, is now scheduled to run at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday.
- The slopestyle skiing event canceled Friday, which was a FIS World Cup, was scored based on qualifying rounds as prescribed by FIS World Cup rules.
- The potent Pacific storm dumped eight inches of snow on the venue and brought unsafe conditions to the halfpipe and slopestyle course.
- The decision was made after assessing the circumstances and taking feedback from both riders and sanctioning partners FIS and TTR.
- Each event was the third of five Olympic selection events. The final freeskiing events are next weekend at Park City Mountain Resort, with the final snowboarding events at Mammoth Mountain.
QUOTES
Calum Clark, USSA Vice President, Events
The mountain operations team at Breckenridge has done amazing work to produce a great venue. But the new snow and weather forces created an environment that was not safe or fair for an athletic competition. We respect the work of Breckenridge and the respective competition juries, which faced difficult decision.
Jeremy Forster, USSA Freeskiing and Snowboarding Director
While it’s disappointing to have had to cancel or postpone these events, it’s imperative that we have a safe and fair competition for the athletes. The decisions made by the separate FIS juries were made fairly and by the rules of the respective sports.