Dehlinger dominates, Tanner recovers after crash at FIS World Cup

Dehlinger, Kotovskyi, and Lillis on the mens aerials podium at Deer Valley's freestyle world cup. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

PARK CITY, Utah — U.S. Ski and Snowboard team member Quinn Dehlinger won the men’s aerials competition on Friday night at Deer Valley in the Intermountain Health Freestyle International FIS World Cup, presented by Stifel.

His victory mirrored the previous night’s success for Team USA, when Olympic medalist Jaelin Kauf claimed gold in the individual women’s moguls event.

Olympic gold medalist Chris Lillis finished third, while Dmytro Kotovskyi of Ukraine secured second place. All three podium finishers executed the same jump—a back full, double full, full—with an identical degree of difficulty, 4.425. However, Dehlinger’s landing earned him a score of 122.57, significantly outpacing his competitors and securing his win.

For the women, it was Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi for a podium sweep.Laura Peel, Danielle Scott, and Abbey Wilcox all performed identical back full, full jumps with a degree of difficulty of 3.150, resulting in nearly identical scores. Though the women’s podium race was much tighter than the men’s, the trio was more than happy to see three Australian flags raised in victory.

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Unseasonably springlike conditions forced the cancellation of the afternoon qualification round, but this only meant that fans were able to watch all the athletes compete. As competitors were whittled down to the top six and then the final three, spectators were treated to a dramatic shift in weather, with the event concluding under the winterlike blizzard conditions Deer Valley crowds have come to expect and enjoy.

Just off the men’s podium was U.S. aerialist Connor Curran, who finished fourth after placing second in this same World Cup event last year.

Park City’s own Tasia Tanner, a member of both the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team and the Park City Ski and Snowboard Team, made it through qualifications and into the Aerials Super Final on Friday night. Her family, including her parents, uncle, and grandfather, were in the crowd to watch the former Deer Valley Resort employee—who has a master’s degree in cybersecurity from the University of Utah and works as the IT manager at Park City’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel—compete on her home turf.

In the final round, Tanner was the first to jump, but she crashed upon landing. As the announcers lowered the music, a hush fell over the crowd. Though she managed to raise an arm to signal she was all right, her motionless position in the finish corral suggested otherwise.

Her parents, Shawnee and Tyler, both Salt Lake City natives and long-time Park City residents, watched anxiously as coaches and event organizers rushed to her side, followed by two ski patrollers with a medical toboggan. After a tense four minutes, Tanner sat up, stood, and skied away under her own power, while the relieved medical team took their empty sled in the opposite direction.

After the relieved embrace seen in the below photo, Tanner’s dad told TownLift, “She said she got a little lost in the air within her jump, but that she’s okay and I simply said to her how proud we all are of her. Tasia absolutely loves competing here at Deer Valley.”

Ian Schoenwald didn’t make the Super Final round but that didn’t dampen the excitement from fans who held heads of him up in support of his showing on this, his home hill.

Julie Pelkan of Park City has worked for U.S. Ski and Snowboard on-and-off for a decade and was at the event. She told TownLift, “Having this incredible opportunity, for these hometown club athletes like Tasia and Ian, is the experience of a lifetime. Moments like these are what they train day in and day out for, and are truly what matter to them. The athletes soak in the outpouring of support from their coaches, their family, their friends, their fans and their community at this amazing annual event that Deer Valley does such a great job hosting every year, it doesn’t get much better than this.”

Free to the public, the final event of this Freestyle world cup, the crowd-favorite dual moguls is tonight, under the lights, beginning at 7:30.