Superpipe: Jen Hudak wins X Games 2010 in Aspen

American Jen Hudak makes an end to three-time gold medalist winner Sarah Burke’s regency and wins the amazing Superpipe finals in Aspen, CO.

At this year’s superpipe finals the six riders showed once more, that girls in Freeskiing are stepping it up. Jen Hudak dominated all three runs with her super clean and solid riding. Her second run, consisting of a 900°, a 540°, followed by an alley-oop 540° and finishing with a stylish 720°, brought her the highest score of the day, but also her other runs would have been sufficient to make the podium.

Not only was her run super technical, she also made her tricks look like world class Freeskiing would be a cakewalk. With impressive security and great style she earned her first X Games gold. The young Canadian Megan Gunning reconfirmed her good performance from the eliminations, which she had won.

A successful 900°, 540° and 720° combo brought her the silver medal, while fellow Kanadian Roz Groenewoud rounded up the podium with a 900°, rightside and leftside 540°, a 360° to switch 540°. Small uncertainties cost her a better ranking. The same was true for Sarah Burke, Freeski-Hero from Canada, who had won the X-Games Superpipe three times in a row. She couldn’t bring down her highly technical run and had to be content with ending up sixth. The two Europeans, Mirjam Jaeger from Switzerland and Anais Caradeux from France, placed fourth and fifth.

This gold medal is a childhood dream comes true for Jen Hudak. Last year this goal was already within Jen’s grasp, as she led the competition, just to be pushed back to second place by her idol Sarah Burke in the very last run. But this time it was Jen’s turn to stand on the very top of the podium: “This is the best night of my life! My family and friends were all here tonight to support me. It has been a dream of mine to win the X-Games for six years. To finally win is a dream come true. I am still in shock actually!”

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