alex hall from team usa. uu. he made a great run midway through the first round ending the competition before most of the field had a chance to get their bearings in the beijing 2022 ski freestyle men’s freestyle finals.
With unparalleled creativity and innovation, Hall had the rest of the field chasing his big score of 90.01 over two and a half rounds. and the best efforts of some of the best freeskiers on the planet were in vain.
fellow American nick goepper followed hall on the podium with silver (his third Olympic medal) while jesper tjader of sweden took bronze in the best return of -three contests from snow park genting in which only 11 athletes competed after kim gubser from switzerland withdrew before the start due to injury.
hall set the only 90+ score of the day with a highly technical, wildly progressive and stylish race.
“It was definitely the best slopestyle race I’ve ever done, mainly because it embodied everything I love about skiing and how I approach it, and I didn’t shy away from that to try and get better scores,” hall. he told olympics.com after the event. “
first hall race ends
hall tiptoed across the rails in his inimitable fashion before unleashing a huge double cork on the first jump. he followed up with an innovative knuckle bounce in the wave section of the second jump. then, finally, he capped the run with a double-10 (backward half-rotation at the end) to switch ground (backward).
The judges, clearly impressed, handed the American a 90.01 which saw him take full control of the competition from the start.
“I am very happy that creativity has been able to shine and has been rewarded,” added hall. “A lot of those tricks were really, really hard for me, especially the last jump.
“I thought I’d give it my all and go all-in right away,” he continued. “and somehow it worked on that first run.”
The second hall race was similar to the first and earned him a score of 86.38 points, more than the highest score of any of the other ten skiers in the stage.
The chasing field pushed the limits in the final round, trying to get a gauntlet into the hall by going big and spinning hard. but it was not to be, as the 23-year-old American’s progression and style earned her a first Olympic gold medal.
goepper, his teammate from usa. USA, who unleashed a pair of superb double cork 14s in his second run (after falling in his first) was good value for his silver on the day and Swede tjader’s great first run was enough for bronze. p>
“I feel amazing,” Goepper said after collecting his third Olympic medal. “Life is good, I’m super grateful for everything that happened in the last two years. To win another medal in another Olympiad, it’s a great thing.”
The bronze winner said that tjader was equally thrilled with the result.
“means a lot. my goal with the olympics is to have the best race of my life, and today i finally did it. I couldn’t be more excited,” he said. “I’ve never done a triple cork change before in a slopestyle race… and the japan double 16 [grab] at the end, I learned this week.
“A lot of pieces came together today,” the Swede added, “it just worked.”
beijing 2022 freeski competition continues tomorrow with ailing (eileen) gu in action in the women’s halfpipe qualifiers and women’s ski cross medals are awarded.
men’s slopestyle ski freestyle results
- 1 – alex hall (usa) 90.01
- 2 – nick goepper (USA) 86.48
- 3 – jesper tjader (Swedish) 85.35