Annalisa Drew competes in women's halfpipe skiing at the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup during the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain on Dec. 17, 2016 in Copper Mountain, Colorado.
Three of Team USA’s 2014 Olympians made the halfpipe skiing podium Saturday at the U.S. Grand Prix in Copper Mountain, Colorado.
Annalisa Drew and Devin Logan were second and third, respectively, on the women’s side, while Aaron Blunck was third for the men at Copper, which also served as the first stop on the 2016-17 world cup tour.
Matching her career-best finish, a second place on March 10 in Tignes, France, Drew bumped her teammate down a podium step with her last run, laying down an 85.80 to pass Logan’s 83.20 second-run score. Reigning Olympic silver medalist Marie Martinod of France received an 88.60 on her second run to take gold, her first halfpipe world cup victory since March 2004.
Logan collects her 11th world cup podium overall, her eighth in halfpipe. Saturday’s finish sets up the 2014 Olympic slopestyle silver medalist to extend her run of three straight seasons among the top three in the halfpipe world cup standings.
Blunck picked up his sixth career world cup podium, soaring to an 87.00 to pass New Zealand’s Byron Wells for the final step. France’s Kevin Rolland overtook teammate Benoit Valentin on his final run, scoring 94.20 to trump Valentin’s first run score of 92.40. Blunck now has finished on each spot of the podium at Copper: He was second in January 2013, then earned his first grand prix victory at the site the following December.
Carly Margulies gave Team USA three women in the final, finishing sixth, while four other Americans joined Blunck to make up half of the men’s final. 2016 Youth Olympian Birk Irving placed fifth, while Alex Ferreira was seventh, reigning Olympic champion David Wise ninth and 2014 Olympic slopestyle silver medalist Gus Kenworthy 10th.
