Australian teen prodigy Valentino Guseli created history on the weekend by becoming the first snowboarder to podium in all three park and pipe disciplines of big air, slopestyle, and halfpipe in a single season.
It capped a monumental weekend for Aussies in snow sports with mogul skiers Jakara Anthony and Matt Graham grabbing gold, as well as aerial skier Danielle Scott, who produced the best jump of her career.
Guseli, 17, claimed silver at Mammoth Mountain, USA in what was his first World Cup halfpipe podium.
Watch the latest sport on Channel 7 or stream for free on 7plus >>
He was scheduled to back up his halfpipe performance in the slopestyle finals later that day, but adverse weather conditions forced the event to be cancelled meaning results from the qualification round three days earlier would stand as final, which had Guesli in second place.
“I’m just super hyped to have landed my tricks this week and got some pretty good results,” he said.
“It’s a little bit unfortunate we didn’t get to have a go at it today in slopestyle, but I’m happy pipe ran and I’m happy with my riding.
Guesli’s victory in the Edmonton Big Air World Cup in December completed the incredible hat-trick. The teen’s enthusiasm for snowboarding was evident as he reflected on this achievement.
“I just want to keep pushing – for podiums, wins, records. But really I just want to keep loving my life and snowboarding and hanging out with awesome people and being in awesome situations like this one.”
The iconic Deer Valley Moguls and aerials venue, which hosted the 2002 Olympic games, was back to its usual night-time schedule drawing in huge crowds ready to witness mogul and aerial skiing madness from the world’s best freestyle skiers.
The Deer Valley World Cup is a favourite stop on tour for many of the athletes with the competition being dubbed the “Super Bowl of Freestyle Skiing.”
Graham, the 2018 Olympic silver medallist, secured his first victory in single moguls since 2017 by beating the most accomplished mogul skier of all time Mikael Kingsbury, otherwise known as the mogul skiing GOAT.
The Central Coast local qualified in third place then lifted his performance for the final.
“It was a tough long day today, the course was eating people all day, I was just happy to find my line and rip it each run,” said Graham.
Graham put down two blistering runs in the final posting a score of 85.35 in the super-final to beat Kingsbury by almost two points.
“I was having so much fun here at Deer Valley, I love this event, had my first ever win here in 2016 so it’s good to be back up here and stand on top of the podium,” he added.
The rare double gold in the moguls was last achieved by Australia in Calgary 2017.
“It’s a surreal feeling, I went back-to-back with Britt Cox in 2017 in Calgary, and now to get the back-to-back wins with Jakara is super special,” said Graham after the event.
Graham backed up his gold medal in the single moguls with a second-place finish in the dual mogul format.
Anthony continued her dominant form and was the only skier to score a more than 80 points in the super final.
The victory was Anthony’s fourth out of five events so far this season in the single mogul format. She has a 150-point advantage in the World Cup tour standings; and with only one event remaining, her lead on claiming the crystal globe at the final world cup of the season in Almaty, Kazakhstan next month is unassailable.
“It’s incredible, the last time was Matt and Britt Cox, so to take that top step with Matt, who I have taken a second place with before and to now take the top step is absolutely incredible and he ripped out there, his run was phenomenal,” said Anthony.
With Scott claiming victory in the women’s aerials, it caps Australia’s best performances in 25 years at the iconic Deer Valley Mogul and Aerial skiing World Cup.
Scott launched a double twisting triple flip in the super final to achieve a career best score of 115.20 and one of the biggest jumps she’s ever done.
“Everything went to plan, and to finally be doing triples again, it just feels so awesome, and I can’t wait for more girls to be doing them,” said Scott.
The victory saw Scott reclaim the tour leaders’ yellow bib from Canadian Marion Thenault, who finished second behind Scott in Deer Valley. The battle for the world cup title remains close between the pair, which now comes down to the final two events of the season in Switzerland and Kazakhstan.
“I am looking forward to the World Championships, got to keep building, I have a bit more degree of difficulty in the bag, and have to keep doing jumps like this,” said Scott.
The FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboard World Championships will be held in Bakuriani, Georgia from February 19 – March 5th.
To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide.
