Hailing from Telluride, Colorado, the 29-year-old who competes in ski superpipe, slopestyle, and Big Air disciplines brought just the right diverse selection of tricks for the unique superpipe course on Copper Mountain.
On his first run, Kenworthy worked the quarterpipe obstacles at the top of the course with technical aerials and blasted high spins out of the superpipe for a strong 84.66-point score. On his second run, the British-American Freeski superstar upped the ante by sending alley-oop 360 over the channel, double cork 1080 over the quarterpipe hip, left-side 360 into the superpipe, massive right-side 1080 tail-grab and a huge switch double cork 1260 on his last wall for 92.66 points and second place behind Noah Bowman in first.
At the recent X Games Aspen 2020, Gus Kenworthy teamed up with Special Olympic athlete Palmer Lyons to win gold in the first-ever Special Olympics Unified Skiing event. Kenworthy also owns two silver and three bronze medals from slopestyle, superpipe and Big Air starts at X Games. Outside the snow sports arena, the 2014 Olympic silver medalist has also appeared as an actor in the hit television series ‘American Horror Story: 1984’.
Women’s Ski Slopestyle: Monster Energy’s Maggie Voisin Edges into 3rd Place
As the final snow sports event of the action-packed weekend, Women’s Ski Slopestyle was overshadowed by adverse weather conditions. A heaping of fresh snow blanketed Copper Mountain with several inches of fresh powder, creating dangerous conditions on the slopestyle course, especially the jump elements.
Deciding on how to proceed, the ten qualified finalists voted to limit the competition only to the rails section at the top of the course. The fresh snow limited top speeds on the lower part of the course, rendering the jump obstacles too unsafe to continue. Without the spectacular aerial acrobatics factoring into the score, this shifted the focus towards technical prowess and versatility with the winners decided by the best score out of three runs.
Known for her technical rail tricks, Monster Energy’s Maggie Voisin from Whitefish, Montana, rose to the challenge. As rail grinds went from appetizers to main course, the 21-year-old served up a perfect first run, including k-fed on the kink rail followed by a 270 out and a 270 on, switch 360 out on the butter box and a switch on to 630 off on the cannon rail for a strong 89.33-point score. Although she upped the difficulty on her third and final run, Voisin could not clinch the landing on the final 630 out and had to settle for third place, with Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud taking the win.
Maggie Voisin is officially back to competition after undergoing left knee surgery in 2019. One week ago, the U.S. Freeski Pro Team member claimed third place in Women’s Ski Slopestyle at the Land Rover U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain. She also earned bronze at X Games Aspen 2020 and now holds five X Games medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze). In 2018, Maggie Voisin turned heads as the first American rider in history to win Women’s Ski Slopestyle gold at X Games.
Monster Energy’s Giulia Tanno from Lenzerheide, Switzerland, looked poised for a podium finish at Copper Mountain today but found herself bumped into fourth place on last attempts. On her third run, Tanno posted a variety of difficult rail tricks, including k-fed switch up, 270 out on the down rail, pretzel out on the butter box and grind 630 off on the cannon rail for 87.00 points and fourth place.
Newschoolers Awards: Monster Energy Athletes Recognized in Key Categories
Monster Energy athletes also took top honors at the 20th Annual Skier of the Year Awards presented by Freeski online platform Newschoolers in a ceremony inside Copper’s Grand Hall in East Village on Friday night. The awards, which were custom-made ski trophies by Gilson Skis, were voted on by a judge’s panel including Freeski mainstays such as Will Wesson, Tall T Dan, and Steve Stepp.
Presented to the outstanding male and female skiers, the Newschoolers Skier of the Year awards recognized those riders who had made the biggest impact on the ski scene in 2019. Top honorees included Monster Energy’s Ferdinand Dahl who took home the Comp Jock of the Year award for an epic 2019-contest season full of podiums. Dahl had freshly joined the Monster Energy Freeski team in 2019 and put down a milestone-heavy season. Competitive highlights included slopestyle bronze at X Games Aspen and second place at the 2019 Mammoth Mountain World Cup event.
The price for Ladies’ Choice award for Best Female Edit in a video feature included the duo of Sarah Hoefflin and Giulia Tanno for their work in the Faction Team movie titled “The Collective”.
Rounding out a night full of epic achievements, Monster Energy’s Tom Wallisch was presented the Newschoolers Hall of Fame Award. Wallisch started his career by uploading his unpolished video edits to Facebook and Newschoolers, ultimately generating millions of views. The Pittsburgh-native turned Park City-resident has also won Slopestyle gold at X Games Aspen 2012 and set a world record with a 424-foot rail grind in 2016. Wallisch received the Newschoolers Hall Of Fame/Legacy Award with gratitude as the final trophy of the night.
Thanks again to the entire team and congratulations on a strong showing at Dew Tour Copper Mountain 2020!