South Lake Tahoe's Jamie Anderson Clinches Olympic Spot

Jamie Anderson of South Lake Tahoe clinched the first spot on the U.S. Olympic slopestyle snowboarding team with her victory Thursday at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain. Ryan Stassel (Anchorage) took the victory for the men, while favorite Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA) fell hard during his first run and couldn’t put together a complete second run. It was the third Olympic qualifier of five, and the fourth qualifier commenced Thursday at 4:30 p.m..

Anderson's winning run was a 50-50, back lip, tail 270 out, frontside 360 shifty, backside 540 and cab 720.

"I’m so excited and grateful. The weather is absolutely gorgeous," said Anderson after clinching the Olympic spot. "It is a little unfortunate that the event got canceled last week, but I’m so happy we were able to make it up and get a good result. The course is really fun. They did a great job with the snow that they really don’t have."

"It definitely brings some peace knowing that I’ve locked in my spot. I still definitely want to do well at the next events, but this was the one I was pretty nervous for and really just wanted to put down a run and go from there" she added.

She joins South Tahoe High graduate Maddie Bowman on the U.S. Olympic team. Bowman earned a spot on the first ever U.S. Freeskiing team last Sunday.

Anderson was in South Lake Tahoe over the Christmas holidays, catching up with family and meeting up with the nine local students that she sponsors with a Sierra at Tahoe pass and equipment. Her Skype chat with the kids was featured in SouthTahoeNow.com.