Kelly Sildaru Wins Women’s Ski Slopestyle, Dominating Jump & Jib Courses

(Photo above: Kelly Sildaru in first, Tess Ledeux in second and Maggie Voisin in third. Congrats ladies! Photo: Ortiz)

Four inches of fresh snow added padding to the jumps course landings, which kicked off the first competition of the weekend before skiers transitioned to the jibs course. Ski Women’s Slopestyle officially sent Dew Tour Breckenridge 2018 into competition mode Thursday morning.

The three jumps and four jib sections were split into two courses where runs were judged on overall impression and then combined for final scores out of 200. Eight skiers were given three runs on each course with the best run on each counting toward their overall score.

The first skier of the weekend was Mathilde Gremaud but she took a spill on her first jumps run and opted to sit out the rest of the event. On the flip side, Kelly Sildaru stomped every jump during her first run with clean grabs to find the top spot early on. Then, Sildaru stepped her tricks up to a right 900 tailgrab and back-to-back switch 1080s, both grabbing mute and spinning opposite directions in her second run. That second run was the standout of the first section earning the top score of 92. Specifically her switch right 1080 mute grab over the Toyota jump was praised as her best trick done up top.

Going into the jibs course the standings read Sildaru, Tess Ledeux and Maggie Voisin topping the leaderboard.

After the first two runs on the jibs course, scores were looking similar with Sildaru bettering her already top score advancing her first run score of 89 to 93.67. Sildaru’s second run included front switchup pretzel 450 off the Stanley feature, to a front switchup continue 270, 360 nosedrag over the pump bump, slide front 270, and finished with a switch left 270 pretzel 450 on the Mountain Dew jib.

Voisin was in third again, but Ledeux was sitting in fourth after last year’s defending champion Johanne Killi showed off her technicality by spinning on and off rails in multiple directions. Still, Ledeux surprised everyone when she leapt onto the massive wallride on the second jib section, and for the risk she was rewarded.

Sildaru decided not to take her final run of the day while ranked first with more than 20 points separating her from Voisin overall.

Explaining her decision not to take her final run on the jib course, Sildaru said, “In training I crashed on the rail and my knee wasn’t feeling very good. It is fine, though, I just hit it a little bit.”

Ledeux upped her score to surpass Voisin for second on the day, but still finished exactly 20 points behind Siladaru’s final score.

“The level of Kelly’s riding, as everyone knows, is unbelievable. She pushes this sport,” said Voisin in response to having Sildaru’s presence back in competition following her knee injury last season. “I think women’s free skiing is bigger and better than ever. Having her back on the scene is going to push it that much further. So, thank you, Kelly.”

For reference, Sildaru knocked her right knee in practice—not the one she injured last season.

Ski Women’s Slopestyle Finals Results

1.) Kelly Sildaru, 185.67
2.) Tess Ledeux, 165.67
3.) Maggie Voisin, 164.34
4.) Johanne Killi, 157.00
5.) Giulia Tanno, 143.33
6.) Elena Gaskell, 142.67
7.) Sarah Hoefflin, 137.34
8.) Mathilde Gremaud, 16.67