Lake Tahoe's Jamie Anderson Takes Gold in Sochi; Mancuso wins 4th medal
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Mon, 02/10/2014 - 8:41am
South Lake Tahoe's hometown girl Jamie Anderson cleaned up her second run to earn the first-ever women’s slopestyle snowboarding gold medal Sunday at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games.
"This is definitely the biggest stage in the world for sports." said Anderson after the historical win. "After getting second at X Games last week I was really passionate and determined to come out here and do my best and do everything I can to be my strongest, most grounded calm self even with the hype of everything on the outside world. It just feels out of control. I can’t even explain what I’m processing now."
Her smooth style during her final run secured her the gold with a score of 95.25, putting her on top of the podium ahead of Finland’s Enni Rukajarvi and Great Britain’s Jenny Jones, who took silver and bronze. The slopestyle final aired Sunday night.
"I don’t know how it happened," Anderson continued. "I was so impressed with all the girls’ riding. I really was just trying to focus on the run I chose to do, really visualizing that and seeing it to the end and knowing that I was going to land everything perfect and try to do it with as much style as possible. The rest was out of my hands. I just wanted to do what I was capable of doing."
Lake Tahoe's Julia Mancuso produced a true champion performance Monday, becoming the first American skier in history to win a medal in three straight Olympic Winter Games with her bronze in a tricky super combined event at the Rosa Khutor alpine center.
Mancuso skied into the lead in the downhill portion and then ripped up the slalom course that bumped nine skiers off course, finishing third behind gold winner German Maria Hoefl-Riesch and silver winner Austrian Nicole Hosp.
"I knew I just had to give my best shot and it sure didn’t feel good," said Mancuso after her run. "I definitely had moments in my mind where I was thinking, ‘This is not going to be good enough but keep fighting.’ I knew where to let it run on that last pitch and surprise! I looked up and got a medal."
Karly Shorr of Truckee had a 75 on her second run to put her in 6th place.
"I just love being here at the Olympics," continued the Squaw Valley skier. "It’s so much fun and I get really energized."
Mancuso and the women will be back to take on downhill on Wednesday, Feb. 12. Coverage of the women’s super combined event airs on NBC’s primetime Olympic feature Monday at 8:00 p.m.
