Jaysey-Jay Anderson of Mont-Tremblant was back on the podium for Canada at Tandadalen, Sweden, last weekend with a bronze medal performance in the parallel giant slalom.
Anderson was on top all day until he faced Siefried Grabner of Austria in the semifinal. After losing that contest, he was determined to come up with the bronze against a Swiss rider.
"With the icy conditions I changed my strategy against (Gilles) Jacquet," said Anderson. "They certainly weren’t my best runs of the day but it got the job done. I had very good performances in the early rounds, but against Grabner I should have done better."
Anderson, the reigning overall World Cup champion for the past two years, went on to finish seventh overall in the parallel slalom on the same day.
While Anderson has proven again and again that he has what it takes to win on any given day, his results in Sweden showed an ability to come back as well.
In the bronze medal match, Anderson was behind Jacquet by 12/100ths of a second after the first run. With nothing to lose on the second run, Anderson let it all hang out and finished 16/100ths of a second ahead of Jacquet, or 4/100ths of a second faster over the two runs.
He also made a comeback of a different kind. In the season opener at Valle Nevado, Chili, in September, Anderson was sidelined after suffering a serious concussion in the snowboard cross. Although there was no doubt that he would race again, most athletes who suffer concussions take a while to get their confidence back.
The gold medal in the PGS went to Dejan Kosir of Slovenia, who defeated Grabner of Austria in the finals.
The parallel slalom went to Markus Ebner of Germany, followed by Mathieu Bozzetto of France and Daniel Biveson of Sweden.
Also for Canada, Jerome Sylvestre of Bromont, Quebec, was 18 th in the PGS and 29 th in the parallel slalom. World Cup rookie Aimee Newton of Rossland was 27 th in the PGS.
The Canadian freestyle snowboard team did not attend the events in Sweden, opting to stay in Canada and focus on the World Cup in Whistler this weekend, and at Stoneham, Quebec next weekend.
