Women's podium

Austrian Steffi Von Siebenthal splintered the women's ranks. It was American women one upping each other by bits of time when Brigitte Kick took down the American dreams with her powerful presence. Then came Steffi. Nobody knows (even Steffi) how she made four seconds on the fastest women on boards, but that's what the clock said. Lets just say that the women who were watching to see if their time would hold up, soon found themselves picking their jaws off the snow and heading down in complete dismay.

"Nobody knows (even Steffi) how she made four seconds on the fastest women on boards, but that's what the clock said..."

"This is a big, big highlight for me to win the US Open..I look forward to going home now. The last race of the season in Davis, my home town. I like both events because they're so special." Steffi smiled.

The field could have been deeper with 58 men and 35 women, but the rulers were in the house and in fine form. Fellow Austrian Brigitte Kick kept her second place standing and Ursula Bruhin from Switzerland followed in third. The American women looked fast until the Austrians dropped in. Sondra Van Ert missed the podium by .07 seconds in third and little Lisa Kosglow followed in fifth.

Scott Palmer set this long endurance course that had many burning out before the finish. This combined with the big American kicker at the bottom had many many sketching before they started.

American speed demons Ian Price, Jeff Archibald and Jeff Greenwood powered down hard but couldn't break the podium bubble. They all remained within a second of each other and held fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. Mr. Martin Firmaments must have made the same mistake Jags Jay Anderson did because they both fell down the racks to 11th and 12th. Good thing I was late because those were my bets for the day.

Let us not forget Leasee Olson who checked out the big air before stripping down to her skin suit and carving her way into 12th place and beginning another awesome display of overall snowboarding skill on Leslee's part. We love Leslee, yes we do, we love Leslee how bout you!

— Hans Prosl, sportin' a skin suit just for the feel of it fro The Mountain Zone