Defending Olympic moguls champions Jenn Heil (CAN) and Dale Begg-Smith (AUS) took their second victories in as many days in Calgary on Saturday as FIS Freestyle World Cup continued with another moguls event.

Heil, 26, is also feeling better and better about how she's competing, despite the challenges a defending Olympic champion inevitably faces in the month or so before a potential repeat Olympic-gold performance.

"I dealt with a lot of pressure in 2006. But I've grown up a lot since then," she said. "I've had the opportunity to have a lot of opportunities outside of sport. And I have an amazing team behind me."

Heil, who now lives in Montreal, also continues to focus on improving her skiing, no less so after seeing "a few holes" in Friday's winning performance, upon reviewing the video. Scores were a lot higher in the finals Saturday, so Heil knew she had to be better.
"It was a very, very high-scoring final," said Heil, who won the qualification round with a score of 23.71, compared to the next best run of 23.11 for American Heather McPhie.

Heil's score of 24.94 in the final put Aiko Uemura of Japan second in 24.03 and Nikola Sudova of the Czech Republic third in 23.90. McPhie was fourth for the second straight day.

Kristi Richards of Canada led the overall World Cup moguls standings after placing sixth Friday. But she finished 28th Saturday, and now sits second overall. Her 223 points trail Heil's leading total of 305.

In the men's final, Canadian native Dale Begg-Smith, who now competes for Australia, produced the fastest final to help clinch the win. Alex Bilodeau of Canada rebounded from placing 16th Friday when his ski came off mid-run. Bilodeau was the week's fastest skier in the qualifying rounds, but felt he was out of control. In contrast, Begg-Smith's time of 21.90 seconds was a half-second faster than fifth-place Anthony Benna of France.

"Dale really did a smoking run. He deserved to win," said Bilodeau, who was happy with his own game plan. Bilodeau, 22, had the sixth-fastest time of 23.00 and second-highest air scores after doing a double-twisting double flip.

Bilodeau's final score was 24.70, compared to 25.25 for Begg-Smith. Alexandr Smyshlyaev of Russia scored 24.42 for his second third place finish in two days.

Begg-Smith leads the men's overall moguls standings with 295 points. Jesper Bjoernlund of Sweden is second and Bilodeau third, with 281 and 205 points respectively.

Action resumes with aerials Sunday.

Sunday 10 January 2010
FISfreestyle.com

Heil and Begg-Smith take mogul wins in Calgary

Canadian native and defending Olympic champion Dale Begg-Smith, now skiing for Australia, took the men's win while another defending Olympic mogul champion Jenn Heil (CAN), collected the 22nd World Cup victory of her career, in Canada Post Freestyle Grand Prix mogul action as part of the FIS Freestyle World Cup held at Canada Olympic Park on Friday.

Heil won the first World Cup staged in her native Alberta in 20 years. And she did so in convincing fashion, before the 2010 Olympic Games judging panel and after placing third in the qualifying round.

"Honestly, I feel better than ever. I feel like I've won the lottery, to be able to compete at home," said Heil, 26, about the excitement of skiing before family members and so many friends from the Edmonton and Calgary areas.

After placing fifth and third in her first World Cups of the season last month, she said she wasn't skiing in a high enough gear.

"I've really tried to do that, to continue to increase the gear, but I'm not in my top gear yet," she added, alluding to the fact that she's building for the upcoming Olympic Games.

Nikola Sudova of the Czech Republic placed second, while veteran Margarita Marbler of Austria took third.

The winner of the qualifying round, Kristi Richards (CAN) placed sixth, to remain atop the overall moguls standings and hold on to the yellow leader's bib - just ahead of Heil.

Several skiers downgraded their jumps on the challenging Calgary course.

"I kind of like it when it's rough, with the moguls small and sharp," said Vincent Marquis, who took 2nd in the men's event and posted the highest air scores of the finalists.

"I don't remember the last time I was that nervous, but I just tried to remember that I'm doing it because I like it."

Third place went to Russian Alexandr Smyshlyaev ahead of Guilbaut Colas of France and the two-time Suomu winner Jesper Bjoernlund of Sweden who retained his yellow leader's jersey.

Action resumes with another mogul event at Canada Olympic Park Saturday.

FISfreestyle.com
Saturday 9 January 2010

Jia, Li of China best in Calgary aerials

Three days of FIS Freestyle World Cup competition wrapped up in Calgary (CAN) on Sunday with the season's third aerials competition.

Chinese athletes Zongyang Jia and Nina Li won the event in changing weather, poor snow conditions and some of the lowest scores ever seen.

Zongyang Jia of China was best in the men's competitions at the Canada Post Freestyle Grand Prix at Canada Olympic Park with 253.40 points followed by overall leader Anton Kushnir of Belarus in second at 244.60 and his compatriot Alexei Grishin third in 230.73. Kushnir thus retained his lead in the overall standings.

In women's aerials, Nina Li of China was the victor with Evelyne Leu of Switzerland second and Xinxin Guo of China third. Guo has been on the podium in each of the three World Cups so far and leads the overall rankings.

The crowd in Calgary came out in record numbers to support the teams in the build up to the Olympic Games. Unfortunately the weather conditions changed. "There was a weather change. No one was hitting good takeoffs, the snow turned into sugar and it wasn't that hard packed snow we were aiming for," said Matt Christiansen, coach of the US team.

The next World Cup competitions will be the Visa Freestyle International at Deer Valley Resort (USA) on 14th-16th January with night finals 15th Friday.

Tuesday 12 January 2010
FISfreestyle.com