"We felt that with the slow snow conditions, the last jump was dangerous," said U.S. Snowboarding head coach Peter Foley. "Many of the women were taking really hard falls and all of them were landing very hard.
"We asked Callan to train on the upper part of the course, but to not do the last jump because she is coming off of an injury and we didn't want to expose her to that kind of risk this early in her recovery."
Saturday's races in Chapelco, Argentina, opened the 2009-10 World Cup boardercross race season.
Olympic gold medalist Seth Wescott of Sugarloaf, Maine, and X Games silver medalist Graham Watanabe of Sun Valley, Idaho, finished second and third respectively in Argentina, the first in a series of five Olympic team qualification events for the SBX racers.
On the women's side, Olympic silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis of Stratton Mountian, Vt., crashed in the first round and finished ninth; she was the top American. Maelle Ricker of Canada won the women's race.
"It doesn't seal the deal for (Wescott and Watanabe) but it puts them halfway there, I'd say, and in a super good position to be two of the guys on the Olympic team," Foley said. "I'm really happy about the speed we're going this time of year."
Reach reporter Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.