The Olympic debut of big air men’s freestyle skiing has delivered Team USA another medal.
Colby Stevenson took home silver in the event Wednesday afternoon in Beijing, finishing second behind Norway’s Birk Ruud.
The 24-year-old New Hampshire native did not land a clean jump in his first run of the finals but then rebounded with a nosebutter triple cork 1620 and a switch double cork 1800 on his final two runs — to secure a total score of 183. Ruud led the way with a 187.75 while Sweden’s Henrik Harlaut took the bronze with a score of 181.
Stevenson, one of the world’s best on slopestyle, had never finished higher than sixth at a World Cup big air event.
“I’m totally on a cloud,” he said. “It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I mean, it was just a miracle that I ended up here today.”
Stevenson, who nearly died in a 2016 car crash that reportedly left his skull fractured into 48 pieces, had to wait out the final competitors to make sure his spot on the podium was safe.
Fellow American Alexander Hall, who won big air gold in the 2022 X Games, finished eighth with a score of 160.75 after not being able to land his final jump.
The 21-year-old gold-medalist Ruud also has had to overcome adversity to get to his Olympic moment. He came to the Beijing Games eyeing medals in big air, slopestyle and the halfpipe — no action sports athlete has earned three medals in the same year.
He has been promising to win Olympic big air gold since middle school, even in a discipline that only became a Winter Games event this year. The last leg of his route to Olympic glory was a painful one.
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His father, Øivind, woke him late one night in July 2020 with crushing news: a cancer diagnosis. He was gone nine months later.
Ruud had two Winter X Games big air gold medals and three World Cup wins before his father got sick. He has only one World Cup victory since, and he’s acknowledged that his dad’s illness pulled his mind away from competitive skiing.
His efforts to ramp up for Beijing were interrupted by a knee injury nine weeks ago, and he skipped last month’s Winter X Games to play it safe amid the coronavirus.
The rust came off quickly, though. The result was something he’s sure Øivind would be proud of.
“I’m just thankful to be in this position and I’m thankful for all the time I had with my dad,” he said. “I still have my family, and I have a lot of people that support me, and I’m very thankful for that.”
— with AP