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Jamie Anderson defends slopestyle title at Burton US Open

Dominique Taylor/Special to the Daily

VAIL — Slopestyle snowboarder Jamie Anderson topped the podium again this year at the Burton US Open. But that’s just one of the things she’s excited about right now.

“The course was awesome this year,” she said after the win on Friday. “When I saw Spencer stomp her back 9 I got really excited, and then Anna tried the cab 9 and pretty much stomped it, just bounced a little, it was so inspiring.”

That podium — the American Jamie Anderson in first, the Austrian Anna Gasser in second, and the Canadian Spencer O’Brien — was part of a field of women from six different nations in the six-person final.



“The Olympics are over, and we’re all just friends and nations together,” Gasser said after the competition.

“I’m really happy it’s like that and not like ski racing where all the nations are separated,” she added, with a laugh.

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O’Brien’s backside 900 was only the second time a back 9 has been landed in competition. The first time it was landed it was also from O’Brien, earlier this year at the X Games.

“I’m so impressed that Spence did the 9, I was scared to just to a switch back 5 on that jump,” Anderson said.

The judges rewarded O’Brien for the accomplishment, giving her a score of 9.05 out of 10 on that particular feature, the highest jump score on the day for the women. But as each of the six features are scored individually, that one score wasn’t enough to push her above Anderson and Gasser’s total scores. In her winning run, on the first of the three rail features, Anderson earned a score of 9.25 of 10, approaching the rail switch and spinning 270 degrees onto the rail and tailsliding out. Her next two railslides earned her scores of 8.5 and 9 for a total of 26.5 out of 30 on that section. On her best run, O’Brien’s rail score was 21.7.

“It was pretty fun on the upper section, you can flow and do some rail tricks,” Anderson said.


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