The best riders are cited in Tignes (Part III)
From this Wednesday, the French resort will have on his SuperPipe illustrious names like David Wise, Torin Yater Walles or Maddie Bowman
The last event of the Winter X Games start from Wednesday in Tignes and, as we have been seeing for the last week, there will come the best specialists of snowboard and ski. Precisely, tonight we review the favorites in the category of SuperPipe.
The first thing to note is that in Tignes will be the podium at the last edition of Aspen. The favorite to take the gold medal is the American David Wise, the winner of the last two editions of Winter X Games in Aspen, the best rider combining rotations, amplitude and impossible tricks. Despite his young age, 22 years, is married and he has a daughter of two years which devotes all triumphs. Another name to consider is Torin Yater Wallace, the youngest athlete to get medal in Winter X Games. Since his debut in X Games in 2011, he has not lowered the podium but he has never reached the gold medal. In his last participation in Aspen, he got the silver medal and this must be added the bronze and silver medal that he got in 2012 and 2011 respectively. His abilities include his amplitude on jumps and double alley-opp flatspin that delights all viewers. The American Simon Dumont, third in Aspen, will be too in Tignes and he will fight against their rivals to get the medal.
The fact that is played in France, the French Thomas Krief is a skier to keep in mind, although having been crowned with no medals yet, is showing great progress in recent months and it suggests that he could be placed among the best. A progressive risk taker, Kevin Rolland maintains speed by landing difficult tricks high up on the wall. He won the gold medal at the 2009 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships in the halfpipe and has also won three medals at the Winter X Games and two medals at the Winter X Games Europe, including back-to-back golds in the SuperPipe at both events. Rolland also became the overall Winter Dew Tour Superpipe Champion in 2011. In his last appearance in Aspen in 2013, he took the fourth place.
Mike Riddle began picking up podium finishes at the US Open, World Superpipe Championships and the European Open and he took fourth at both the X Games highest air and X Games Europe. While he has struggled to live up to his potential at Winter X Games (he has only made two finals in six attempts), Riddle consistently makes the superpipe podium at big events all over the world. The American dominates great tricks such as double flips, big rightside rotations and great amplitude all the way down the pipe.
In females, Anais Caradeux is a skier from France who started skiing at the age of 14. After spending her childhood under the sun on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, Caradeux and her family moved to Annecy, where she got her taste for winter sports. Since then, her career has taken off quickly and in 2011 she finished 2nd overall in the AFP World rankings for halfpipe, after earning bronze in front of the hometown crowd at Winter X Europe.
One of such big skiers in Superpipe is Roz Groenewoud, considered as the number one skier in her sport. She won the gold medal in the halfpipe at the 2011 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships and also achieved big wins in Winter X Games, with two bronze medals in 2010 and 2011, silver in 2013 and gold the previous year. The skier dedicated that win to teammate Sarah Burke who passed away previously that month in a training run.
And of course, the favorite: Maddie Bowman. The winner of the Aspen SuperPipe come to the French event with a clear objective: to maintain her supremacy and get a new gold medal certifying the birth of a new star.