US 1-2 In Mens' Slopestyle
The final event to hit one of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games’ most iconic venues took to the slopes of Genting Snow Park on Wednesday morning, where 23-year-old Alex Hall of the USA claimed men’s slopestyle gold with a superb first run in the 12-man finals, followed by his countryman Nicholas Goepper in silver, and Jesper Tjader of Sweden in bronze medal position.
Hall’s winning attempt was exactly the type of run that the core freeski purist and the casual viewer alike could revel in, as the lanky U.S. skier’s easy flow through the course combined with unique and deceptively difficult tricks was the day’s clear standout performance.
Kicking things off with a switch left 270 on to backside switchup continuing 270 off on the first down rail, Hall then went into a switch right tails-over 270 on to continuing 270 off on the next down rail, before finishing things off in the jib sections with a silky-smooth left side 720 nose to tail tap.
Through the jumps Hall began things with a left double cork 1620 with his trademark tweaked lead Japan. He then took a unique approach to the second jump feature, utilizing the butter box potential of the wavy middle section to stomp a switch left 720 nosebutter to 540 Japan out, before finishing things off with one of standout tricks of the day - a right double cork 1080 bring-back that really has to be seen to be believed.
"It definitely was the best slopestyle run I've ever done,” Hall said about his 90.01-scoring winner, “Mainly because it embodied everything I love about skiing and how I approach skiing. I didn't fade away from that to try and maybe get bigger scores or something.I just kept it true to myself, and I think that's the most important part about our sport is just doing it for the love and doing it how you want to do it and not changing that.”
"Honestly I was really, really surprised I landed the first run. I had done some parts of the run, but definitely not the whole thing altogether.”
Asked about sharing the podium with two veterans and legends of the sport like Goepper and Tjader, Hall was quick to spread the praise. "I'm so stoked. I I think it hasn't really hit me yet, maybe that's why I'm so calm. But being up here with Jesper and Nick is really special. I love those guys. They're amazing skiers and honestly everyone in finals, everyone in the whole competition - I love them all.
"We're all really tight friends, which I love about free skiing, and it's an honour to compete with them on the world stage and compete with them on such an amazing and kind of crazy course.”
Beijing 2022 marked freeski slopestyle’s third turn at the Games, and with his silver medal performance on Wednesday 27-year-old Goepper has now stood on the podium at all three of those competitions; first as the bronze medallist in a U.S. sweep back at Sochi 2014, then as the lone U.S. podium representative as silver medallist at PyeongChang 2018, and now here again at Beijing 2022 with his repeat runner-up performance.
Known as one of the hardest workers in freeskiing and an athlete who thrives under pressure, Goepper’s experience and ability was on full display in his 86.48-scoring second run on Wednesday.
With a rail section highlighted by a tricky right 180 up to switch left tails-over 450 continuing 270 off on the first rail, and a jump line included a switch right double bio 1260 mute on the skew kicker, into a right double cork 1440 tindy off the challenging quarterpipe aspect of the second jump feature, and then a left double cork 1440 lead tail on the final jump, Goepper’s full range of abilities was on display as he claimed his second-straight silver medal.
"I was real nervous (for second run). I kind of messed up a little bit on the first rail on the first run,” Goepper said, going through his day, “I feel awesome. Life is good, I'm super grateful for everything that's happened in the last couple of years. Life's a roller coaster but to get another medal out of another Olympics it's just a cool thing."
With his third Olympic medal in the same freestyle skiing event, Goepper joined an elite club of which the only other members are moguls greats Kari Traa (NOR) and Mikael Kingsbury (CAN).
"That is something I never dreamed of,” Goepper said of his third medal, "If you told me as a 16-year-old that this is what would be happening right now, I would tell you that you were crazy.”
The bronze medal win for 27-year-old Tjader came as something of a surprise as - despite being one of the most well-respected and progressive freeskiers of all time and a internet star known around the world for his mind-blowing video edits - he’s rarely found the podium at top-level international competitions throughout his career.
However, on Wednesday Tjader managed to land in the top three at the biggest contest of them all, putting down what he himself described as the “run of (his) life” at exactly the right time, and then getting some luck as other, more heavily-favoured skiers made crucial mistakes on the tricky Beijing 2022 slopestyle course.
With a run highlighted by a right 450 on continuing 810 off on the big cannon rail and a switch left triple cork 1260 Japan on the second kicker, Tjader would earn a score of 85.35 to grab himself Beijing 2022 Olympic bronze and the second freeski medal of the Games for Sweden after Henrik Harlaut also earned bronze in big air.
“It means a lot,” Tjader said of his bronze-medal performance, “My goal with the Olympics is to land my best run ever, and today I finally landed it. I couldn’t be more stoked.
“I’ve never done that switch triple on the second jump in a slopestyle run, so that was the first time. Then, with the double 16 Japan at the end, I just learned that this week. A lot of pieces came together today. It just worked out.”
