Janna Meyen Wins Gravity Games Slopestyle

With 40 minutes left in the two-hour jam format slopestyle, Janna Meyen sat back and relaxed while the rest of the field tried to catch up to her 12 point lead.

Consistency, technical tricks, and clean landings on the largest side of the jumps secured the win for Meyen. Her final run included a backside 5 to a cab 5 to an enormous backside 3 to straight air, to 50-50 air over the battleship, to a clean boardslide on the ledge rail, finishing off with a cab boardslide on the final feature.

"At that point I was so stoked because I had so much fun snowboarding, said Meyen. "I was so drained that I was content with the runs I put down. If anyone could step up and beat it, the more power to them, but I was tired."

A course without spectators and milky skies at Copper Mountain, Colorado made it feel like just another day in the park (a park with enormous jumps and high rails). A lot of the girls had a hard time clearing the jumps, which gave Meyen the distinct advantage. Silvia Mittermueller from Germany threw down clean runs early on in the jam, earning second place.

"If they would have made every jump five feet smaller, there would have been more technical competition and everyone's knees would have been more happy today," said Mittermueller. "The last 40 minutes, I couldn't take anymore runs because it was so slow."

Izumi Amaike from Japan, who was fearless of the bigger jumps, rounded third place. Leanne Pelosi dominated the rails as usual, just missing out on a podium spot. Tara Dakides worked herself in practice when she overshot the third jump. She was determined to make a comeback in the finals, but couldn't quite put it together as the clock wound down.

Results

1. Janna Meyen (USA) $20,000
2. Silvia Mittermueller (GER) $10,000
3. Izumi Amaike (JAP) $7,500
4. Leanne Pelosi (USA) $2,500
5. Hannah Teter (USA) $1,500
6. Laura Hadar (USA) $500