Finn Bumps U.S. Favorites

In the end, red-headed Shaun White, a.k.a the Flying Tomato, was trying his best not to stew.

And Danny Kass, who along with White has dominated the superpipe competition in recent years at the Winter X Games, was dumbstruck, struggling to come up with appropriate words to describe how he felt.

In the end, after those two had been holding onto second and first, respectively, in the best-of-three-run event, White was left out of the medal picture entirely and Kass was transformed from golden to bronze.

In the very end, on the final two runs of a snowy Monday night before a crowd of 11,300, a 19-year-old Finn by the name of Antti Autti stole the show with a dazzling aerial display that he opened with back-to-back 1,080-degree rotations to move into first and claim his first X Games gold medal.

He was followed by a flawless if less spectacular run by Truckee’s Andy Finch, who charged from fifth into second to close the show.

“It was my first time ever doing back-to-back 1080s,” said Autti, the world superpipe champion who said winning an X Games gold was an even bigger accomplishment. Asked if he expected the score of 93.00, which vaulted him from third to first, he replied, flatly, “No.”

For White, whose superpipe and slopestyle runs have yielded four gold medals and two silvers in five X Games appearances, it was the first time he’s been shut out in the X Games’ marquee event since 2001, when he was 14. He did not compete in the event last year because of a knee injury suffered in practice for the finals.

White scored a 90.00 on his first run and was in first place through the first of three rounds, but Kass turned in a 90.33 to open the second round, taking the lead. White was visibly upset when the judges gave him an 89.33 on his second run and was not happy with the 90.00 on his third run, which kept the two in one-two deadlock until Autti and Finch closed the main event.

“I thought maybe I didn’t go big enough on the first run, so I went bigger on the second and I got an even lower score,” White said of a run in which he soared 17 feet above the edge of the pipe (34 feet above the pipe’s floor) on the first hit, and followed that with a 720, 900, another 720 and a 1080.

His third run, with basically the same moves but with more variation, was his best, he said, choosing his words carefully thereafter: “Every contest is different and I guess it wasn’t my time, but I’ll be here next year with a bigger run.”

Kass, 22, scored only an 85.33 on his third run but was happy where he stood after White failed to catch him and with only two competitors left. Standing at the base of the pipe, watching the scoreboard move him from first to second, then from second to third, his jaw dropped, then began to move when he was asked to sum up his feelings.

“Drama. Crazy. Up, down, up, down and sideways,” the Mammoth Lakes resident said. “But I’m still psyched. It was a great event.”

Four of Kass’ five X Games gold medals are in superpipe.

Later, in the media tent, he said he was not surprised that Autti pulled off the victory.

“I’ve seen him ride a lot in the last year or so and he’s amazing,” Kass said. “I thought he’d receive a higher score [than me].”

Autti was the only international athlete in the competition.

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Snowboarding’s iron man, Ross Powers, one of two athletes who have been to all nine Winter X Games, was among the top riders who did not advance beyond the superpipe preliminaries. Others were Keir Dillon and last year’s gold medalist, Steve Fisher.

Powers, who turns 27 next week, did not ride with the same precision and intensity he’s known for; he didn’t use the same high-scoring trickery, such as the back-to-back 1080s he stuck at the U.S. Open last spring, as younger athletes such as Autti, White, Finch and Kass.

This, of course, may not bode well for Powers’ chances of participating in a third Winter Olympics. He won the bronze medal in 1998 at Nagano and the gold in 2002 at Salt Lake City, and acknowledged this week that qualifying for the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy, would be the toughest ever “because there are just so many guys” who will be trying out.

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Monday’s most dramatic wipeout occurred during a demonstration event featuring disabled skiers using 40-pound monoskis.

Leaders Laurie Stephens and Lacey Heward, one after another, caught humongous air on the final jump and failed to maintain their balance. They tumbled across the finish line, in first and second place, respectively, and careened to a stop.

Heward lay still as help arrived but was eventually helped up and skied to the base of the run. Asked how she was able to fall so hard without losing any of her gear, she drew laughter when she replied over the public address system, “I even duct-taped my goggles to my head because I said I have to get everything across the finish line for it to count.”