DEER VALLEY — There was at least one person who could say "I told you so" after Hannah Hardaway won the women's mogul title in the Gateway Freestyle Challenge on Sunday.
Liz McIntyre stood back, away from the flashing lights and barrage of questions during a media review after the race, and calmly admitted it was due. "Hannah is the best technical skier in the world," said the head technical coach for the U.S. Ski Team. No argument there, not after Hardaway, currently ranked No. 20 in the world, bested Kari Traa of Norway, the No. 1 ranked mogul skier.
Sunday, Hardaway, of Moultonborough, N.H., beat the best mogul skiers in the world to win her first World Cup gold, which came as a surprise to her.
In 1998, she landed wrong on an aerial jump, injured her left knee and underwent surgery. In 1999, doctors had to go back to repair what didn't heal after the first operation. Last year was spent in recovery.
"I guess you could call this my comeback year. This is the first time in a long time I've been able to ski without pain. It feels good," she said as she thanked well-wishers in the finish area of the Deer Valley Olympic arena.
No one was surprised when Evan Dybvig of Tunbridge, Vt., slipped in to take his silver medal in the men's competition. Known as one of the most explosive bump skiers in the world, he went for big air off the two jump, picked the right line and, as required in mogul skiing, went far faster than someone not a little crazy would go.
Edging him out by two-tenths of a point was Mikko Fonkainen of Finland.
Assessing the day's results, McIntyre said she was generally pleased.
"The men did well. I'm very happy for Evan. I am a little disappointed in the women. I thought more should have made it into the finals," she said.
Four U.S. men made it into the final 12, while only two women qualified for the finals.
Under the scoring system, skiers get 50 percent of their points from the turns (84 on a course about 200 yards long), 25 percent on the two jumps and 25 percent on speed down the course.
Hardaway scored 24.31 points from the judges to Traa's 23.85. Third was Minna Karhu of Finland with 23.57. Shannon Bahrke from Tahoe City, Calif., was fourth. Traa lost nearly two points to Hardaway on her level of jumps.
Ronkainen score 26.93, Dybvig 26.75 and Janne Lahtela of Finland, currently ranked No. 1 in the world, was third with 26.51. Travis Ramos of the U.S. team was ninth, Toby Dawson was 10th, and Ryan Riley was 11th. Dybvig scored better than Ronkainen on the turns but lost ground in the air and speed.
Missing in the final round were Johnny Mosley and Donna Weinbrecht, both gold medalists and both on the comeback trail. Weinbrecht, who won the first gold offered in women's moguls in 1992, took two years off to rest and decide if she wanted to continue in the sport. She chose to compete and finished 16th.
Mosley, who took a year off to pursue personal and business interests, is having a harder time returning. He's currently ranked 79th in the world, and in Sunday's event was obviously off on his timing in both skiing and his jumps. On his second jump he over-rotated on a 360 spin and fell. He finished in last place.
Reviewing Hardaway's run, McIntyre explained that what makes her so good is she has good feel for her skis and her balance.
"She always knows what her skis are doing, and she's willing to experiment with new things. That helps. Not everyone, though, will take the risk," she said.
Hardaway probably would agree with most of what her coach said but admitted after the race that there were a few seconds where she was lost.
"On my first jump I landed hard and my head went down. For a second, I lost my vision. Luckily, I was able to pull out and continue on," she said.
This was only the third time she's tried the 360-degree helicopter jump in competition. Her second jump was a double Daffy, which resembles taking two giant steps in the air before landing.
Dybvig hit a 720, or two complete spins in the air, on his first jump and a "heli mute grab," a spin with the skis vertical and then grabbed by the skier.
The skiers will head for Canada next week for a World Cup, then go to Whistler, British Columbia, for the all-important World Championships. All admitted in some words Sunday they were definitely looking at skiing the course again in 2002.
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