<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After several days of delays and cancellations related to a series of winter storms in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Saturday at the Mammoth Mountain Toyota U.S. Grand Prix finally witnessed some proper competition action, where an exceptional morning of riding for the Japanese team saw Mitsuki Ono take top spot in the women’s competition, and Yuto Totsuka leading a Japanese sweep of the men’s podium.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>ONO EARNS MAMMATH REPEAT</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last season’s Mammoth winner and winner of the Laax Open two weeks ago, Ono came into competition knowing she would have to face down Mammoth Mountain’s own Chloe Kim if she wanted a repeat performance at the Californian resort. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, as it turned out, Kim came into competition in less than peak shape after a heavy few days of action at the X Games last weekend, and the 23-year-old was unable to put down a clean run, falling on both of her first and second attempts and requiring assistance from ski patrol to leave the competition area after run two.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With Kim a non-factor on Saturday, Ono cruised to her second victory of the season with relative ease, putting down a 93.50 scoring first run, and then dropping in on her second run victory lap and taking things up another notch.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Leading things off with a big, poked out Indy, Ono then went frontiside 900 tail grab, backside 540 Weddle, frontside 720 Weddle, and then a cab 900 melon to finish things off, riding out to a score of 95.50 and the fifth victory of her World Cup career.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Finishing in second place with a score of 88.50 was Ono’s Japanese teammate Sena Tomita, as the Beijing 2022 Olympic bronze medallist was able to earn her first top-3 since the 2022 edition of the Mammoth Mountain U.S. Grand Prix, giving the Japanese team their first two of what would be five podiums on the day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rounding out the women’s podium and acting as the lone non-Japenese representative in either top-3 on Saturday was the USA’s Maddie Mastro, who earned her third third-place finish of the 2023/24 season with a score of 83.00. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>TOTSUKA BACK ON TOP AFTER ALMOST THREE YEARS</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over on the men’s side of things the Japanese team were in a league of their own on Saturday, with Yuto Totsuka leading the way with a caliber of performance we haven’t seen from the 22-year-old in quite some time. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Leading things off with a switch backside 900 Weddle, Totsuka then went cab double cork 1440 frontside grab, then frontside double cork 1260 Weddle, backside 1260 Indy, and then finally a frontside 1440 to finish things off, earning the 22-year-old a score of 94.75 and his first World Cup win in nearly three years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The win marked Totsuka’s third time standing atop the Mammoth Mountain podium, and was the seventh total of his World Cup career.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Second place behind Totsuka with a score of 91.75 was last season’s Mammoth winner Ruka Hirano, who put down some of the biggest airs of the day while essentially matching Totsuka blow-for-blow trick-wise, but who narrowly missed out on a repeat Mammoth win due to a couple of instabilities in in his landings. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Capping off the Japanese sweep in third place was the human satellite Kaishu Hirano, who claimed his second career World Cup podium with a stylish second run that earned him a score of 89.25 and made it five-out-of-six podiums taken by the Japanese team on the day.</div><div><br /></div>