Bowman snags silver in ski superpipe at X Games
By Colin Bain, XGames.com
ASPEN, Colo. — Canadian skier Roz Groenewoud — better known in the action sports world as “Roz G” — won her first Winter X Games gold in the Women’s Ski SuperPipe in an emotional final that became a celebration of the memory of Groenewoud’s longtime friend and teammate Sarah Burke.
Like most of the skiers in Saturday’s competition and many of the other athletes at Winter X Games 2012 this week, Groenewoud wore a red “Sarah” sticker on her helmet in tribute to Burke, the 2011 SuperPipe champion and four-time Winter X Games gold medalist whose death Jan. 19 after a SuperPipe training accident in Park City, Utah, has hung heavy over Winter X Games 2012.
“It means so much,” said Groenewoud, tearing up at the base of the SuperPipe at Buttermilk after taking a Run 3 victory lap. “After the tribute for Sarah on Thursday I was just so proud to be a skier. The outpouring of love from the community was just absolutely amazing, and Friday morning in training and all of today I just tried to let all of that love lift me up. It feels so great. I definitely felt like I had Sarah with me. She was my teammate for so long.”
Groenewoud beat out Maddie Bowman of South Lake Tahoe and Brita Sigourney for the win after posting a score of 93.66 and taking the lead from Bowman in Run 2 with a massive 14-foot safety grab and a run featuring a 900, back-to-back 540s, a left-side 720 and a switch 540 traveling down the pipe. Bowman’s Run 2 score of 92.00 held for the silver medal, and Sigourney blasted to third place in Run 3 with 90.66 after landing the only 1080 of the competition.