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Most people (including us) expected the Dew Tour women’s halfpipe to be a spar between Kelly Clark and Chloe Kim. However, both were relegated to the 2nd and 3rd steps of the podium after an unexpected win by Chinese rider Liu Jiayu.
Chloe was sitting pretty after the first run, with plenty of her usual style and amplitute. Even if her run had only one 720 and one switch hit, it looked like it could be enough on the day.
Jaiayu was first to drop in the second run, and stepped it up with a 900 on her first hit. The rest of her routine clicked into place, even if the conditions meant that there wasn’t much speed left for the last two hits, and she overtook Chloe who had no answer in her second attempt. The driving snow also ruled out any 1080s from Kelly, but her solid run was still good enough for third.
While she’s previously been a FIS World Championship gold medal winner and finished 4th at the 2010 Olympics, this is easily the biggest win of Jiayu’s career. Expect Chloe and Kelly to face off for a few more seasons, but this proves that there’s still room on the top of the podium for others.
Check out all the podium runs in full below: