Americans Alex Hall, Nick Goepper finish 1-2 in Olympic freestyle snowboarding – Orange County Register

By PAT GRAHAM Writer AP Sports

ZHANGJIAKOU, China – Freestyle skier Alex Hall led the Americans to a 1-2 finish in the men’s Olympic snowboarding competition on Wednesday (Tuesday night Pacific time) with a trick on his first run, where he stopped the rotation mid-air and veered off in the other direction before landing softly.

Hall’s opening runner hit a score of 90.01, something no one else could match in 3 runs. His teammate Nick Goepper made a creative run on his second pass for silver. Sweden’s Jesper Tjader took home the bronze medal.

The American men have won six of the nine Olympic medals since the event launched in 2014. Goepper has three of them, adding a fourth is his silver medal from the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. and a bronze medal from the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

“So proud of the boys and so proud of the way they ski,” said Skogen Sprang, head coach of the professional American freeski slestyle team. “They’ve done a lot of work and they’ve always been true to the way they want to ski and that’s what we’re all about in the sport. … Landing it when it counts is huge. ”

Hall stole the show on a cold day at Genting Snow Park, where the temperature was around minus 4 degrees. The Alaska-born 23-year-old, raised in Switzerland and now living in Utah, has had a few moments happen as the seventh competitor to take the course.

He skimmed over the top of a bump and did an impressive trick on a feature – a risky and unorthodox move he’s taking in practice but doesn’t know if it’ll score well with the jury or not (it did). It was just a warm-up for his mid-air spin on the final jump, where he was able to stop his momentum and essentially turn around.

“Being able to stay true to the roots and incorporate such a trick in an Olympic run is very important to our sport,” says Sprang. “It just goes to show that you don’t always shoot the most or do the… tricks that people think are the hardest. There’s room to be creative and do something new. It’s all about creating new and fun things. ”

Goepper, 27, finished closest to Hall’s track with a score of 86.48.

It was another medal for Hall, who won bronze at the 2021 World Championships and another bronze at the X Winter Olympics last month.

This is certainly a sign of things to come: Hall won a silver medal at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games, where he finished behind Birk Ruud of Norway. Ruud, who won the Big Air competition last Wednesday, placed fifth. Andri Ragettli, the qualifying top player from Switzerland, finished only in fourth place. He made a mistake early on his last run and shut it down.

“It’s not meant to be, but I tried to run hard and try to do my best,” Ruud said. “My skiing is so good, and I feel like I’m there, but I didn’t put it down today.”

GOLDEN RUN OF ALEX HALL. 🥇@Team AmericaAlex Hall of Alex Hall won the Olympic gold medal in the men’s freestyle in his first run. #Winter Olympic Gamespic.twitter.com/Pwvrtmk1Te

– NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 16, 2022

.@NickGoepper put it DOWN on his second run to rise to second in the final run!#Winter Olympic Games | #WatchWithUS

📺 @nbc and @peacockTV
💻 https://t.co/OyYPcd5GeK pic.twitter.com/QVuvTG84ut

– NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 16, 2022