Saturday, February 14, 2009
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Tom Kelly, tkelly@ussa.org

St. Onge Wins in Moscow

MOSCOW, Russia (Feb. 14) - The U.S. Ski Team's Ryan St. Onge (Winter Park, CO) crushed his final quadruple-twisting jump to win a FIS World Cup freestyle aerials event in Moscow in front of the sport's largest crowd ever.

"I've spent a lot of time over the last couple years working towards a goal and these two wins that I have had this season confirm that I am either there or getting real close," St. Onge said. "When the results finally come and it's better than you expected it's a pretty gratifying feeling."

St. Onge threw a full, double full, full for his first jump and for his final he made a double full, full, full.

"I feel like things are getting a little bit easier and it's nice to have the results to prove that," St. Onge said. "I had decent training but everything got pushed back because of weather in the women's event and the weather started to clear for the men's event. We had training but everything was cut short."

He also added that being able to compete with his teammates in such a unique venue was an added bonus.

"My teammates jumped really well today, too. Emily Cook (Belmont, MA) jumped great and Scotty Bahrke (Tahoe City, CA) had a great first jump. It was really fun jumping with him in the finals," St. Onge said. "It was a pretty unique experience."

Bahrke followed St. Onge in the men's standings, finishing 11th, and Cook led the women, finishing 10th.

According to St. Onge, while the jumps may have been incredible, the event itself was spectacular.

"I looked around and there were 15,000 people in the parking lot for the qualifying jump and just streams of people still walking in," St. Onge said. "I was wondering with the bad weather and everything if it was going to be a great event, but the weather got better, people showed up and I'm pretty sure it's the coolest World Cup I have ever competed in."

St. Onge said that the Moscow event illustrates how easy it is to have an aerials event as long as there is scaffolding and snow.

"The fact that we are in downtown Moscow is sweet. Competing inside a city is like - it's an experience," St. Onge said. "For most winter sports events it requires a mountain, but our event is pretty unique because we can do it anywhere - we just need a little bit of scaffolding to get it done."

Now, with the Moscow event in his bag, St. Onge is looking to excel on the World's stage.

"The most important thing is World Championships coming up in the next two weeks and in the last event leading up to those landing two jumps and landing those was really important to me," St. Onge said.

The 2009 FIS Freestyle World Championships begin March 1 in Japan.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2009 FREESTYLE FIS WORLD CUP
Moscow, Russia - Feb. 14, 2009
Aerials

Women
1. Ryan St. Onge, Winter Park, CO, 249.94
2. Dmitri Dashinski, Bulgaria, 247.89
3. Stanislav Kravchuck, Ukraine, 243.64
4. Thomas Lambert, Switzerland, 241.03
5. Steve Omischl, Canada, 240.02
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11. Scotty Bahrke, Tahoe City, CA, 194.89
19. Dylan Ferguson, Amesbury, MA, 92.34
25. Jeret Peterson, Boise, ID, 84.73

Women
1. Mengtao Xu, China, 195.98
2. Shuang Cheng, China, 192.81
3. Lydia Lassila, Australia, 192.11
4. Shuangfei Dai, China, 183.06
5. Nina Li, China, 177.48
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10. Emily Cook, Belmont, MA, 138.37
16. Lacy Schnoor, Draper, UT, 67.72
23. Jana Lindsey, Black Hawk, SD, 44.10
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