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Defending champs Jamie Anderson, Keri Herman miss Dew Tour with injuries

Sebastian Foltz
Tahoe Daily Tribune
Jamie Anderson grabs a selfie between park sessions at Perisher Ski Resort in Australia this summer.
Courtesy / Jamie Anderson |

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — There will be no snowboard slopestyle four-peat for Jamie Anderson at this year’s Dew Tour in Breckenridge. The U.S. Olympic gold medalist and South Lake Tahoe native told Dew Tour officials she would be giving up her space in the competition this week due to injury.

“I broke my collar bone real bad,” Anderson said in an email to the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

The injury occurred while practicing in a Breckenridge terrain park leading up to the Dew Tour, which kicks off with qualifying rounds Wednesday, Dec. 9.



“It’s super challenging to get hurt early season, but I’m thankful it’s a relatively quick recovery,” Anderson explained.

She did not provide a timeline for her return to snow, but mentioned she could be back to competing as early as January.



Olympic teammate, fellow gold medalist and Tahoe local Hannah Teter said Anderson was in good spirits following surgery.

“She’s a mother-trucking trouper,” Teter said of her friend during a phone interview with the Tribune.“I hung out with her the next day. She was looking good.”

Commenting on the nature of the injury, the X Gamer called it a “freak thing.”

“It’s one of those injuries that’s super fast. They say about four weeks,” Teter said. “It happens to the best of us. We all know that feeling.”

Anderson, a four-time X Games gold medalist, underwent surgery in Colorado following the injury.

The procedure included reattaching the broken collar bone with a metal plate and eight screws, according to Anderson’s email and an X-ray she posted on Instagram.

Since she is not currently active with the U.S. Team, officials and team doctors with U.S. Snowboarding were unable to comment as to the extent of the injury and her prospective recovery time.

Anderson had been training on her own in Colorado prior to this week’s competition. Also training in the Peak 8 park was Keri Herman, a longtime Breckenridge local and the defending ski slopestyle champ. Like Anderson, the 33-year-old Olympian took a nasty spill in practice and had to bow out of Dew Tour, leaving her title open to a slew of international up-and-comers like Sweden’s Emma Dahlström and Estonia’s 13-year-old phenom, Kelly Sildaru. Herman is missing her hometown comp, but she is doing fine and will likely return in time for X Games, according to Tricia Byrnes with U.S. Freeskiing.

In an earlier interview with the Tahoe Daily Tribune and Tahoe Magazine — before her injury — Anderson said she planned to participate in the Dew Tour, the X Games in Aspen and the Burton U.S. Open in Vail this winter.

She was coming off of a strong start to the season, winning the slopestlyle competition in New Zealand’s Winter Games last August. Anderson also closed last winter with a win at the Burton U.S. Open last March and remains among snowboarding’s elite since winning the gold in Sochi in 2014.

The X Games are the next major U.S. snowboarding and freeskiing event, in Aspen, Colorado, Jan. 28-31.

“I should be back by X Games for sure,” Anderson said in a follow-up email.

DEW TOUR KICKS OFF U.S. FREESKI AND SNOWBOARD SEASON WEDNESDAY

While Anderson will miss the Dew Tour, fellow California-based U.S. Olympic teammates Danny Davis and Hannah Teter took starts earlier this week. It was a tough way to welcome the season: Davis, a no-brainer favorite for the finals, missed the cut with three ho-hum runs in a row, while Teter barely missed the cut for finals by taking second in the Last Chance Qualifier. All Dew Tour events have an LCQ, but women’s events only take one LCQ finisher, not two like the men’s events.

“If it’s good weather it’s going to be an amazing show,” Teter said following a practice session earlier this week that she said included 40-mph wind gusts. “It was like a tornado coming up the pipe.”

Despite the wind and a disappointing near-miss, the Olympic and X Games gold medalist said she feels confident heading into the winter after an up-and-down season last year.

“It’s been super fun,” Teter said of finding her rhythm. “The pipe is perfect. It’s just getting your repetition back.”

Portions of the events and recaps of the annual competition will be broadcast on NBC Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 12-13. A full recap will air Sunday, Dec. 20, at 5:30 PST. All rounds will stream live online at http://www.dewtour.com Thursday, Dec. 10, through Sunday, Dec. 13. Visit http://www.tahoedailytribune.com for Dew Tour updates.


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