Wild winds at Olympics see 10 of 12 of skiers fall in halfpipe final
Wind was no friend to competitors trying to make their way down the halfpipe at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
In the men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe final at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, China, eleven out of twelve riders fell on at least one of their three runs.
The high winds were apparent throughout the 80-minute final.
Four riders fell on their first run, seven riders fell on their second run, and an additional seven falls came on the third run.
To earn a medal, just a rider’s top run counted towards the score. In the end, it was New Zealand’s Nico Porteous who ended up with the gold medal, followed by Americans David Wise and Alex Ferreira.
Nineteen of the 36 runs in total were a score below 50.00, with a few mislanded tricks being mixed in with the frequent larger falls. Just Ferreira and France’s Kevin Rolland (who finished sixth) finished with three runs above 50.00.
Nine of the runs scored below 10.00, usually indicating a fall on a rider’s very first trick.
Three Canadians competed in the event: Noah Bowman, Brendan Mackay and Simon D’Artois, with all three falling at least once.
Another rough run for @Simondart
One more to go
Watch in the CBC Sports app or @cbcgem pic.twitter.com/hwTx2ju2C9
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 19, 2022
Bowman finished in fourth the event with the high score of 84.75, but finished off the podium by finishing exactly 2.00 points off the bronze medal-winning Ferreira.
Mackay was Canada’s best medal shot, finishing fifth in qualifiers, and coming into the Olympics as the No. 1 ranked halfpipe skier in the world. But a fall on his first run set the tone for a tough evening, as he finished in ninth with a high score of 65.50.
TOUGH first run for Brendan Mackay š„
2 more chances to go to put down a podium score š šØš¦
Watch in the CBC Sports app or @cbcgem pic.twitter.com/kqGothMOiV
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 19, 2022