Ski and Snowboard Club Vail athletes lead Team USA at Toyota U.S. Grand Prix & Visa Big Air
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
Hahna Norman knows the truth about snowboarding: it giveth … and it taketh away.
“The highs are high in this sport and the lows are low,” she said. “Sometimes when you’re low, you have to keep your head up because you never know when a high could be just around the corner.”
Norman wasn’t satisfied leaving Laax, Switzerland, with a 20th-place World Cup big air finish last month. But the 20-year-old Ski and Snowboard Club Vail snowboarder more than made up for it last week in Aspen. Norman finished eighth in the slopestyle and fifth in the big air event at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix & Visa Big Air. She was the second American in both events, finishing behind only her SSCV teammate, Lily Dhawornvej. The 15-year-old was fourth in the big air and sixth in the slopestyle at what was Team USA’s first park and pipe Olympic qualifying event.
“It was a big week for sure,” Norman said. “I’d say I exceeded my expectations.”
On the men’s side, SSCV’s Oliver Martin bounced back from a 53rd-place finish in the slopestyle on Feb. 2 to finish fourth — also as the top American — in the big air on Thursday. The 16-year-old was making his first start since a concussion prevented him from competing in the finals of the Klagenfurt big air World Cup on Jan. 5 in Austria. Martin said the mask he’s wearing for the injury gave him problems in the opening event in Aspen.
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“Going into big air, I was pretty discouraged,” he admitted. “But then I had a great practice the day of the qualifiers, and that was a good boost for me.”
He qualified second after putting together back and front 18s. In the finals, he was hoping to replicate those tricks and add a front 21, but after falling on his first jump, he left his biggest maneuver off the program. Martin is one of just three athletes on the World Cup circuit who can land the 2160; he credited his off-season air awareness practice to perfecting the six full rotations.
“A lot of time on my trampoline is probably the biggest factor there,” he said.
Recent injuries, however, have limited Martin from demonstrating his full potential. He missed out on his World Cup debut at Copper Mountain last spring — as well as the FIS Junior World Championships — because of a broken ankle. In Austria, he was in perfect podium position before falling on his final practice run prior to finals.
“I’ve kind of been not the greatest in that regard,” he said referring to his string of injuries. “That’s kind of a goal as well: try to be as safe as possible riding.” Martin’s mental maturation has helped him discern when to go all-out and when to save his harder tricks for later.
“My mental has gotten a lot better,” Martin said. “I’ve been more cooperative with my coaches, taking more calculated approaches to things and reducing the risk as much as possible.”
SSCV world junior champion Brooklyn DePriest placed 21st and 24th in slopestyle and big air, respectively. His teammates Hayden Tyler and Caleb Dhawornvej were 31st and 35th, respectively, in the slopestyle as well.
“It’s nice having them there and doing it together,” Martin said of the entire SSCV park and pipe squad. “It’s really cool. We’re all super supportive of each other.”
Norman agreed, adding that her and Lily Dhawornvej’s presence in the last two finals has spiced up the pair’s healthy internal competition.
“It’s been a little bit of a battle of who is going to be the top American,” Norman said. “I think we were both trying to one up each other, which makes both of us do better. Hopefully throughout the rest of the season it will continue to be that way and we’ll just continue to push each other to be our best.”
The crew will compete in a series of Rev Tour and NorAm Cup events before traveling to Calgary for the next World Cup at the end of the month. Martin is hoping to secure automatic World Cup starts for next year by winning the domestic circuits, which are one-tier beneath the top international stage. For Norman, finishing 1-2 with her teammate for the U.S. at the first Olympic trials competition — and sniffing the podium in the process — has whetted her appetite.
“Aspen showed me that like, as long as I land my runs clean and do the tricks that I want to do and are my bigger tricks, then finals is definitely in the question,” she said. “I think the podium — I’d love to hunt that down.”
But in a sport where the highs can be very high and the lows very low, she’s trying to keep an even keel.
“A lot of good things came out of this week and so I think kind of carrying that momentum over, channelling that feeling of doing well, but also not letting that get ahead of me,” Norman said. “Celebrate the wins but get right back to work.”
