There were three winners at today’s (Jan. 14) moguls World Cup in Deer Valley, Utah. The Visa Freestyle International, held on the 2002 Olympic moguls and aerials hills, kicked off in record fashion as a tie resulted in American Heather McPhie and Canadian Jennifer Heil sharing the victory. Former Canadian skier, Dale Begg-Smith, who now represents Australia, took the men’s win.

The victory was Park City local McPhie’s first career World Cup podium.

"I've believed in myself for a long time, but you never know - there are so many variables. I just wanted to give it everything I had and I did," an emotional McPhie said after the competition. "My parents are here to see my first podium, and my family and friends. I have so much support."

Heil, who won an Olympic gold medal in Torino gold, tallied her 24th career win and didn’t mind sharing the honors. "In my 10 years, I've definitely never seen anybody share the podium, but Heather obviously had a fantastic run," she said.

American Shannon Bahrke finished behind the two winners in third on the same hill she won her Olympic silver medal in 2002. Bahrke grabbed her 23rd career World Cup podium, as she and McPhie took huge strides towards Olympic berths with two World Cup competitions remaining before the final team is selected in late January. 

"We love coming to Deer Valley, it's the best event we have all year on tour," said U.S. moguls coach Scott Rawles. "To see our guys step up the way they did makes me super psyched. Especially in Heather's case, she's been chipping away at this for a long time, she really worked hard this summer and it's awesome to see her step up to the top of the podium."  

The podium finish was huge for Bahrke, who after 12 years with the team, is contemplating retirement after this season.

“Until today I was one of the last in line, so for me to be on the podium is just incredible, I'm really excited," Bahrke said. "I really hope I'm going to be there [Olympics] too. I'm going just keep plugging away and try to get a win like Heather."

Austria’s Margarita, 35, Marbler landed fourth. 

Heil, the World Cup overall leader, came into Deer Valley hot off of two wins in Calgary and now stands 129 points ahead of McPhie in second and Canadian Kristi Richards (18th today) in third.

Last season's World Cup champion, American Hannah Kearney landed eighth today, continuing a World Cup slump since winning the U.S. Olympic Trails Dec. 23, which guaranteed her a spot on the Olympic Team. Kearney won at the World Cup opener in Suomu, Finland then again at the Olympic Trials, but has gone 11, 36, 8 at the following World Cup competitions.  

"What's on my mind is pushing it and unfortunately I've been skiing below my ability," Kearney said. "I've got a couple more weeks. I have what it takes, I just have to summon it up and bring it."

I total, five U.S. women cracked the top ten as Michelle Roark finished sixth and Shelly Robertson took seventh.

"This is so exciting! We're at Deer Valley, and with six U.S. girls in the top 12, to end up on top is unreal," McPhie said. "I hope and can't wait to walk into Opening Ceremonies representing my country. There are still so many days and so much more training before that."

Begg-Smith is red hot lately, winning the last three World Cup competitions. French Guilbaut Colas, who won here in both of last year’s competitions, finished second ahead of Kazakhstani skier Dmitriy Reiherd in third.  

World champion and U.S. Olympic Trials winner Patrick Deneen (fourth today) led the group of seven U.S. men that made today's finals.

"Everybody skied hard to today, some of our young guys stepped up too and it was good to see Pat [Deneen] back on his game," said Rawles. "It was a great result for Jeremy Cota (sixth) in his first World Cup."

"Fourth place isn't bad. I can think of 56 other guys that would love that place. I'm really happy with my run right now and I want to keep doing it," Deneen said.

Begg-Smith, who won a gold medal at the 2006 Torino Games, leads in the overall standings, 69 points ahead of Sweden's Jesper Bjoernlund (fifth today) in second. Canadian Alexandre Bilodeau (39th today) 190 points behind Begg-Smith.

The moguls skiers will be back at it Saturday with another singles competition. The World Cup aerialists will compete tomorrow at Deer Valley in a night competition. -Eric Williams

Images by Julie Shipman

Men's Results

1	1	2271961	BEGG-SMITH Dale	1985	AUS	26.12		1000.00
2	9	2337049	COLAS Guilbaut	1983	FRA	25.48		800.00
3	7	2469168	REIHERD Dmitriy	1989	KAZ	25.10		600.00
4	23	2382838	DENEEN Patrick	1987	USA	24.85		500.00
5	2	2406797	BJOERNLUND Jesper	1985	SWE	24.84		450.00
6	60	2484727	COTA Jeremy	1988	USA	24.44		400.00
7	15	2369161	DOLGODVOROV Denis	1982	RUS	23.82		360.00
8	6	2270312	MORSE Michael	1981	USA	23.76		320.00
9	34	2296600	BABIC David	1979	USA	23.43		290.00
10	44	2269924	TANNER Warren	1980	CAN	23.29		260.00
11	66	2375563	DIGRAVIO David	1986	USA	23.02		240.00
12	13	2397485	OZAKI Kai	1987	JPN	22.43		220.00
13	63	2372653	CORDEAU Shane	1986	USA	19.32		200.00
14	14	2371877	GINGRAS Maxime	1984	CAN	16.51		180.00
15	5	2482457	SMYSHLYAEV Alexandr	1987	RUS	15.83		160.00
16	4	2471302	WILSON Bryon	1988	USA	10.50		150.00
17	8	2361498	MARQUIS Vincent	1984	CAN	22.75		140.00
18	18	2407670	BENNA Anthony	1987	FRA	22.73		130.00
19	19	2407573	VOLKOV Andrey	1986	RUS	22.53		120.00
20	33	2397776	NISHI Nobuyuki	1985	JPN	22.50		110.00
21	31	2471108	DISCOE Jimmy	1989	USA	22.44		100.00
22	16	2070783	TSUKITA Yugo	1976	JPN	22.14		90.00
23	48	2340929	NOVAK Vaclav	1987	CZE	22.04		80.00
24	45	2082714	RONKAINEN Mikko	1978	FIN	21.97		70.00
25	25	2413781	BURILLE Arnaud	1988	FRA	21.84		60.00
26	42	2484861	ENDO Sho	1990	JPN	21.72		50.00
27	30	2354223	OCHS Pierre	1984	FRA	21.55		45.00
28	62	2439985	BARMASHOV Dmitriy	1985	KAZ	21.49		40.00
29	36	2430271	KYLLOENEN Harri	1988	FIN	21.41		36.00
30	17	2183982	ROUSSEAU Pierre-Alexandre	1979	CAN	21.17		32.00
31	56	2312411	DAUNFELDT Olle	1983	SWE	21.04		28.00
32	40	2482554	VOLKOV Sergey	1987	RUS	20.99		26.00
33	35	2414169	FRANCILLON Baptiste	1983	FRA	20.98		24.00
34	28	2485300	GUMMESSON Adam	1989	SWE	20.95		22.00
35	22	2278169	LUUSUA Tapio	1981	FIN	20.94		20.00
36	21	2484682	KIRAMO Arttu	1990	FIN	20.37		19.70
37	37	2527469	CHOI Jae-Woo	1994	KOR	20.20		19.40
38	67	2471011	DISCOE Joseph	1987	USA	20.09		19.10
39	3	2426100	BILODEAU Alexandre	1987	CAN	20.09		18.80
40	51	2318134	HALL Sam	1988	AUS	19.68		18.50
41	39	2441426	GRAHAM Matt	1994	AUS	19.32		18.20
42	50	2526312	ANDERSEN Tevje-Lie	1991	NOR	18.75		17.90
43	55	2484563	BYKACHEV Pavel	1986	RUS	18.68		17.60
44	65	2526124	SEO Myung-joon	1992	KOR	18.48		17.30
45	38	2407379	VACULIK Lukas	1986	CZE	18.00		17.00
46	47	2396903	ANTONAKAKIS Tryfonas	1983	GRE	17.98		16.70
47	53	2484301	CHO Woo-Hyun	1991	KOR	17.40		16.40
48	41	2526113	GRAHAM David	1991	AUS	17.08		16.10
49	46	2484677	ROCHON Cedric	1990	CAN	16.57		15.80
50	61	2485295	LONGLEY Andrew	1990	GBR	15.33		15.50
51	54	2484758	SLATTEN Vinjar	1990	NOR	12.84		15.20
52	57	2485276	NAVILLOD Mathieu	1989	FRA	12.79		14.90
53	20	2406506	SPETT Per	1985	SWE	12.78		14.60
54	12	2484730	MARQUIS Philippe	1989	CAN	10.62		14.30
55	64	2374205	VALINTEEV Artem	1983	RUS	10.61		0.00
56	43	2484421	NORTON Hugh	1989	AUS	9.02		0.00
57	10	2297279	ROBERTS Nathan	1982	USA	8.38		0.00
58	27	2407185	MATIZ Giacomo	1986	ITA	8.34		0.00
59	32	2484309	SOKOLOV Andrey	1992	KAZ	7.40		0.00
Did not start
		2288064	STARK Christoph	1980	GER

Women's Results

1	6	2364117	MCPHIE Heather	1984	USA	24.59		1000.00
1	1	2275744	HEIL Jennifer	1983	CAN	24.59		1000.00
3	9	2175543	BAHRKE Shannon	1980	USA	24.18		600.00
4	8	2197853	MARBLER Margarita	1975	AUT	24.14		500.00
5	4	2175252	UEMURA Aiko	1979	JPN	23.93		450.00
6	12	2069813	ROARK Michelle	1974	USA	23.88		400.00
7	7	2175640	ROBERTSON Shelly	1979	USA	23.84		360.00
8	5	2328513	KEARNEY Hannah	1986	USA	23.65		320.00
9	14	2329677	ROBICHAUD Audrey	1988	CAN	23.09		290.00
10	13	2481681	STOLYAROVA Ekaterina	1988	RUS	22.77		260.00
11	43	2295436	SHANLEY Laurel	1983	USA	22.00		240.00
12	10	2484720	DUFOUR-LAPOINTE Chloe	1991	CAN	21.93		220.00
13	17	2329386	OUTTRIM Eliza	1985	USA	21.25		200.00
14	19	2476152	DUFOUR-LAPOINTE Maxime	1989	CAN	20.37		180.00
15	16	2360722	SCANZIO Deborah	1986	ITA	19.41		160.00
16	28	2485203	KLOSER Heidi	1992	USA	14.82		150.00
17	21	2484307	GALYSHEVA Yulia	1992	KAZ	19.59		140.00
18	2	2304360	RICHARDS Kristi	1981	CAN	19.32		130.00
19	51	2419989	KAFFKA Marina	1987	GER	18.85		120.00
20	27	2485171	KRAUS Constanze	1990	GER	18.78		110.00
21	33	2439983	RODIONOVA Yuliya	1990	KAZ	18.72		100.00
22	15	2397097	ITO Miki	1987	JPN	18.67		90.00
23	38	2485299	SCHRIWER Martina	1988	SWE	18.59		80.00
24	30	2399522	BROWN Jackie	1986	CAN	18.42		70.00
25	25	2485019	RAKHIMOVA Regina	1985	RUS	18.23		60.00
26	48	2484830	MURATA Arisa	1990	JPN	18.19		50.00
27	39	2277878	SEROVA Daria	1982	RUS	17.86		45.00
28	41	2526325	GUNCHENKO Anastassia	1991	RUS	17.33		40.00
29	24	2044884	CHERKASOVA Marina	1972	RUS	17.14		36.00
30	35	2481584	MURATOVA Elena	1986	RUS	16.98		32.00
31	40	2440553	PARKS Nicole	1992	AUS	16.35		28.00
32	44	2484417	MELVILLE Sarah	1993	AUS	16.31		26.00
33	46	2526184	VACULIKOVA Tereza	1992	CZE	16.19		24.00
34	50	2484416	COX Britteny	1994	AUS	15.89		22.00
35	45	2485294	KOYANDER Ellie	1991	GBR	15.77		20.00
36	18	2484304	RYBALOVA Darya	1988	KAZ	15.64		19.70
37	52	2358588	SUDOVA Sarka	1986	CZE	15.49		19.40
38	32	2527272	ONEILL Taylah-Paige	1994	AUS	14.27		19.10
39	49	2340250	BEDNARIK Nina	1982	SLO	12.51		18.80
40	36	2527561	LI Nan	1992	CHN	12.32		18.50
41	31	2484419	HUMPHRIES Roanna	1993	AUS	8.89		0.00
42	47	2373041	SANTA-OLALLA Reyes	1984	SPA	4.04		0.00
43	11	2266044	TORITO Emiko	1982	USA	2.58		0.00
44	26	2484380	BUMANN Nicole	1986	SUI	0.30		0.00
Did not start
		2527560	NING Qin	1992	CHN
		2525906	SEO Jung-Hwa	1990	KOR