Visa U.S. Snowboarding World Cup Recap

2/26/09 - 3/1/09

Sunday River Visa U.S. Snowboarding World Cup Recap

Sunday River was proud to host the Visa U.S. Snowboarding World Cup, from February 24 to 28, where Olympic-level competitors tore up the Parallel Giant Slalom (PGS) and the Snowboardcross (SBX) courses on Monday Mourning, Sunday Punch, and Rocking Chair. Guests at the River shared the slopes with some of the greatest athletes in the world for almost a week while a sponsor village that included Paul Mitchell, SmartWool, Nature Valley, XBox, Alka-Seltzer Plus, Sorel, Yahoo!, and the Chris Klug Foundation set up in the Barker area where spectators were viewing the action live or on a jumbo media screen. The results are in!

New England’s own Michelle Gorgone (Boston, MA) led the way for the U.S. alpine snowboarders, finishing 6th in the PGS. The podium went to Amelie Kober (Germany), Tomoka Takeuchi (Japan), and Alexa Loo (Canada). In the men’s PGS event, Benjamin Karl (Austria) won, followed by Siegfried Grabner (Austria) and Jasey Jay Anderson (Canada). No U.S. men made it past the qualification round.

The USA made its mark on the men's SBX podium as Graham Watanabe (Sun Valley, ID) won first place while Lukas Gruener (Austria) took second and 2002 Olympic gold medalist Ross Powers (Londonderry, VT) finished third. It was the only win this season for Watanabe who arranged to take the rest of the competition schedule off in order to prepare for Olympic qualification in 2010. For the women, Maelle Ricker (Canada) placed first with Helene Olafsen (Norway) and Mellie Francon (Switzerland) finishing second and third, respectively. Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton Mountain, VT) led the way for the U.S. women, finishing fourth. With her win from Boreal, however, Jacobellis came away with the national title.

World Cup Results

Men’s PGS Results
          1. Benjamin Karl (AUT)
          2. Siegfried Grabner (AUT)
          3. Jasey Jay Anderson (CAN)
          4. Roland Fischnaller (ITA)

Women’s PGS Results
          1. Amelie Kober (GER)
          2. Tomoka Takeuchi (JPN)
          3. Alexa Loo (CAN)
          4. Claudia Riegler (AUS)

Men’s SBX Results
          1. Graham Watanabe (USA)
          2. Lukas Gruener (AUS)
          3. Ross Powers (USA)
          4. Robert Fagan (CAN)

Women’s SBX Results
          1. Maelle Ricker (CAN)
          2. Helene Olafsen (NOR)
          3. Mellie Francon (SUI)
          4. Lindsey Jacobellis (USA)

National TV Coverage

NBC will broadcast the event March 7 at 2 p.m. ET and Versus will re-air it at 5 p.m. ET the same day.