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'One-armed' Ricker captures Legendary Banked Slalom crown

Squamish's Ma毛lle Ricker made a surprise and perhaps somewhat premature return to competition on the weekend after breaking her hand on Jan. 18 at the World Snowboard Championships in La Molina, Spain.

Squamish's Ma毛lle Ricker made a surprise and perhaps somewhat premature return to competition on the weekend after breaking her hand on Jan. 18 at the World Snowboard Championships in La Molina, Spain.

The result was a fifth consecutive crown at the Legendary Banked Slalom event at Mount Baker, Wash., despite the fact that she competed with one arm essentially incapacitated.

Ricker, the 2010 Winter Olympics snowboard cross gold medallist, broke her left hand and partially dislocated her left shoulder in January. She went to the Legendary Banked Slalom - a race with a 26-year history - with friends, not expecting to compete but "just to hang out," she told the Vancouver Sun.

Despite the fact that she had screws and a plate in her hand and has been undergoing physio and massage therapy on her shoulder, she decided to compete anyway - and wound up winning her fifth straight Legendary Banked Slalom title, beating second-place Maria DeBari of nearby Glacier, Wash., by two seconds for the pro women's crown.

During Sunday's (Feb. 13) final, Ricker competed with her left arm tucked inside her coat "and made like a one-armed rodeo queen down the mountain," according to Bellingham Herald sportswriter Ben Fletcher.

"It's not so bad," Ricker told the Herald. "I think it's OK because it's my front arm. I think if it was my back arm it would be harder."

Ricker plans to continue her rehabilitation and hopes to compete in the final two events of the World Cup snowboard cross circuit - March 18 in Italy and March 25 in Switzerland.

Squamish's Rob Fagan finished fifth in the pro men's category of the Legendary Banked Slalom, two spots behind Olympic silver medallist Mike Robertson of Canmore, Alta.

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