YOUR AD HERE »

Bleiler enters X Games pipe finals as top seed

Staff Report
Gretchen Bleiler of Aspen, Colo. grabs her snowboard in the air while competing at the Winter X Games on Thursday, Jan., 24, 2008 in Aspen, Colo.. Bleiler placed first in the Superpipe elimination, and will be competing under the lights for the finals. (AP Photo/Nathan Bilow)
AP | AP

ASPEN ” There is no cover jinx for Gretchen Bleiler so far.

The Aspen Olympic medallist snowboarder, who is currently featured on the cover of ESPN The Magazine, scored a 92.66 for the top spot in the snowboard superpipe women’s qualifying round at Winter X Games 12 on Thursday.

Bleiler, who took silver last year in the pipe, took home the silver in the halfpipe of the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.



Australia’s Torah Bright came in second in the qualifying round with a 91.66 and Vermot’s Kelly Clark followed with a 90 for third.

The top 10 of the 16 participants will go on to the finals to be held on Friday at 7:45 p.m. The event will be broadcast on ESPN.



Qualifying Results from Aspen/Snowmass on Thursday, January 24, 2008

(Top 10 advance to finals)

Name / Bib No. / Hometown / Score

1. Gretchen Bleiler / 303 / Aspen, Colo. / 92.66

2. Torah Bright / 326 / Cooma, Australia / 91.66

3. Kelly Clark / 307 / Mount Snow, Vt. / 90.00

4. Soko Yamaoka / 319 / Nagano, Japan / 80.66

5. Hannah Teter / 317 / Belmont, Vt. / 77.66

6. Lizzy Beerman / 301 / Weston, Vt. / 75.33

7. Ellery Hollingsworth / 310 / Darien, Conn. / 73.33

8. Kaitlyn Farrington / 308 / Bellevue, Idaho / 69.66

9. Manuela Pesko / 316 / Lenzerheide, Switzerland / 67.00

10. Mercedes Nicoll / 314 / Whistler, BC, Canada / 66.66

11. Clair Bidez / 302 / Minturn, Colo. / 66.66

12. Jamie Anderson / 315 / South Lake Tahoe, Calif. / 64.00

13. Molly Aguirre / 344 / Mammoth Lakes, Calif. / 57.00

14. Dominique Vallee / 318 / Montreal, QC, Canada / 44.00

15. Meg Pugh / 393 / Orcas Island, Wash. / 42.00

16. Kjersti Oestgaard Buass / 366 / Trondheim, Norway / 34.66

17. Tricia Byrnes / 306 / Aspen, Colo. / 31.00

18. Anne-Flore Marxer / 362 / Hossegor, France / 15.66


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Glenwood Springs and Garfield County make the Post Independent’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.