By USSA

A heated early season battle went down Dec. 5 at the first stop of the Sprint U.S Grand Prix tour in Copper Mountain, Colo., with Olympic Champion David Wise of Reno and New Zealander Janina Kuzma taking home top honors.

The new three run, best run counts format gave today’s finalist a lot of opportunity for progression, but Wise’s consistent skiing and back-to-back double cork prowess set the stage early in the game. Wise won the contest with his first run of the day in which he linked right and left double cork 1260s.

Second and third place finishers Torin Yater-Wallace and Benoit Valentin favored the three run format, mixing up their tricks and upping their scores as the day progressed. Alex Ferierra and current AFP World Champion Kevin Rolland finished just off the podium in fourth and fifth, respectively. U.S. Freeskiing teammates Gus Kenworthy and Aaron Blunk rounded out the top seven.

Progression was the name of the game on the women’s side as well, with Kiwi skier Janina Kuzma landing her first 900 in competition and simultaneously landing herself on the top of the podium. Olympic slopestyle silver medalist Devin Logan nabbed second place with her stellar first run combo of a left 720 mute to switch alley-oop 540. Olympic halfpipe silver medalist from Japan Ayana Onozuka walked away with third place just edging out American Annalisa Drew.