Olympic bound - Shaun WhiteToday Shaun White won the Mammoth Grand Prix half pipe finals and secured his spot on the US Olympic team. All day he was going huge and stomping his back to back double corks ultra clean. During his first contest run he added to the double corks a backside 900, fronside 540, and a huge method.

Shaun going huge.

That was enough for Shaun to get the #1 spot going into round two. Lots of guys tried to knock him out of the top spot including Luke Mitrani who has his own unique double backside rodeo that he was throwing on the first hit. JJ Thomas also came out swinging with back to back 1080 s, followed by back to back 900 s.

JJ showing that you can still podium without double
corks.

Louie Vito came the closest to contesting Shaun s run, with back to back double corks, a backside 900, and a front side 1080. In the end, though, Shaun White was the only one to execute his tricks flawlessly and he was left with a victory lap. Instead of taking his last run mellow, since he already won, he did his run again even bigger and attempted to add in a backside double cork.
Louie Vito
On the girls side, Hannah Teter had the back to back 540 s and back to back 720 s. Elena Hight had a really good run with a front side 720 and 900, along with a cab 720 and backside 900. Her amplitude wasn t quite there toward the end of her run and that left the door open for Gretchen Bleiler.

Elena Hight

Gretchen decided to switch her run up and was starting it off with a front side 900, into the crippler 720, cab 720, and backside 540. All Gretchen s tricks were well out of the pipe and that locked her in first place.
Hannah Teter
The Mammoth Grand Prix wraps up on Sunday with the Slopestyle finals going down at 11:00am.

Words and Photos by Kevin Westenbarger

Men s:
1. Shaun White
2. Louie Vito
3. JJ Thomas
4. Luke Mitrani
5. Zach Black
6. Steve Fisher
7. Scotty Lago
8. Matt Ladley
9. Elijah Teter
10. Dylan Bidez

Women s:
1. Gretchen Bleiler
2. Elena Hight
3. Hannah Teter
4. Kelly Clark

5. Ellery Hollingsworth
6. Holly Crawford
7. Clair Bidez
8. Madeline Schaffrick