Reigning Olympic champion Jamie Anderson outscored her teenage teammates to claim gold in women’s snowboard slopestyle at the U.S. Grand Prix in Mammoth Mountain, Calif.
Anderson won the competition, the first Olympic selection event, with a second-run score of 80.25. She was joined on the podium by 16-year-old Hailey Langland and 19-year-old Julia Marino.
At last weekend’s X Games, Anderson finished second behind Marino, while Langland placed fourth.
American rookies took the top spots in the men’s slopestyle event as well, with 16-year-old Redmond Gerard scoring 87.95 to place first. Kyle Mack and Dylan Thomas completed the double sweep for U.S. snowboarders.
Gerard felt a few nerves before what turned out to be his first major title, and told U.S. Snowboarding, “When I was in the rail section I was like, ‘this jump section is going to be gnarly, I’m terrified right now!’ It turned out to be fine—just trust your landing and trust your skills and you’re good to go.”
Besides Anderson, all five medalists would be first-time Olympians if named to the U.S. Olympic team for the 2018 PyeongChang Games. The Grand Prix in Mammoth is the first of five competitions used to select the snowboarding slopestyle team. A maximum of three male and three female snowboarders can earn automatic berths onto the Olympic with podium finishes at these qualifying events.
In the women’s ski slopestyle event, Maggie Voisin won gold and was the only American to make it onto the podium. Devin Logan, Olympic silver medalist in the event, placed fourth.
Voisin was named to the 2014 Olympic team but wasn’t able to compete in Sochi due to an ankle injury sustained in practice.
The men’s ski slopestyle event was cancelled due to deteriorating conditions on Sunday afternoon.
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