The US has the most medals of all countries in freestyle skiing and won four medals in Vancouver including a gold in women’s moguls. That was the first time the US had won a gold though since they won 3 in Nagano 16 years ago and was a huge improvement on winning only a single bronze in Turin. Can the US duplicate their success from Vancouver and take home another gold in Sochi?
Freestyle Skiing’s Olympic History
Freestyle skiing started as a demonstration event in 1988 and became an official event in 1992. After having 4 events from 1994 through 2006 two made a debut in 2010 while four more events will debut this year. Only men’s and women’s moguls and aerials have been part of the freestyle skiing program since its debut.
The US has been the top country in freestyle skiing with 14 medals, but that’s only a share of the 72 total medals awarded. 16 countries othr than the US have been awarded medals including 12 who have won gold medals. The US does have the most gold medals as well with six of the 24 awarded.
How the Freestyle Skiing Competitions Work
The first freestyle skiing events will be in the moguls category. Moguls involves the athlete skiing down a hill that has a lot of moguls (bumps) on it. An athlete is not just judged based on their speed in moguls (though that is an element). They are also judged on how well they turn through the moguls and how they do on two jumps in the course. Their will be a qualifying run to get the field down to the top 20 and then a final run that will determine the medal winners.
Next up will be the ski slopestyle competition. This is a new event this year in the Olympics. If you read the snowboarding preview you’ll know most of how this works. The athletes ski down a slope that has various obstacles and jumps on it. They’ll perform tricks on the obstacles and be judged on their tricks. Athletes will get two runs to try to get their best score. There will be a qualifying round and then a final round to determine the medalists.
After the slopestyle competition the Olympics will return to one of the original events, aerials. In aerials an athlete will make two runs, each consisting of a single jump and be judged on those jumps. And these jumps are pretty legit with some great air, no moguls here. Combining the score from the two jumps will determine each athletes total score. In qualifying the top 12 athletes based on their two jumps will move on to the final round. The final round is contested the same way to determine the medal winners.
Next up will be another newcomer, the ski halfpipe event. This event is run just like the aforementioned slopestyle competition, except in a halfpipe instead of on a slope with obstacles. Essentially it’s the same event as the snowboard halfpipe event, just on skis.
The final competition is the ski cross competition. This event is back for its 2nd straight Olympics. This analogous event here is snowboard cross. An individual run down the course will determine the top 32 times and the four man groups for the 1/8 finals. Once we reach this point the top two in each four man run will advance to the next round as we go from 32 to 16 to 8 to 4 and then our medalists.
US Team
The team is made up of 12 men and 14 women. Only five of the 26 athletes were part of the team in Vancouver while two of them were part of the team in Salt Lake City.
Links are to twitter accounts for the athletes.
US Freestyle Skiing
Men:
Aaron Blunck – Halfpipe
Mac Bohonnon – Aerials
Bobby Brown – Slopestyle
Joss Christensen – Slopestyle
Lyman Currier – Halfpipe
Patrick Deneen* – Moguls
Nick Goepper – Slopestyle
Gus Kenworthy – Slopestyle
John Teller – Ski cross
Bradley Wilson – Moguls
David Wise – Halfpipe
Torin Yater-Wallace – Halfpipe
Women:
Maddie Bowman – Halfpipe
Ashley Caldwell* – Aerials
Emily Cook** – Aerials
Annalisa Drew – Halfpipe
Keri Herman – Slopestyle
Hannah Kearney** – Moguls
Heidi Kloser – Moguls
Julia Krass – Slopestyle
Devin Logan – Slopestyle
Heather McPhie* – Moguls
Eliza Outtrim – Moguls
Brita Sigourney – Halfpipe
Angeli VanLaanen – Halfpipe
Maggie Voisin – Slopestyle
* – Was on team in Vancouver
** – Was on team in Vancouver & Turin
A Sochi 2014 Freestyle Skiing list on twitter including all of these athletes
US Team’s Olympic History
Patrick Deneen is the only man on the freestyle skiing team with previous Olympic experience. Deneen was on the team in Vancouver competing in moguls where he qualified in 10th for the finals. Deneen was unable to land a clean run in the final and thus was not scored finishing in 19th.
In Vancouver Ashley Caldwell competed in the aerials event. After finishing 16th on her first jump Caldwell posted a top ten jump on her 2nd and qualified for the finals in the 12th and final place. In the finals Caldwell finished 10th.
Emily Cook also competed in that same aerials event. Cook did a bit better in qualifying where she finished fifth including the third best score on the second jump. Unfortunately Cook couldn’t keep that same form in the final where she ended up 11th of 12 competitors. Cook’s 11th place finish was an improvement on Turin where she was unable to get out of the qualifying phase as she finished 19th.
One of the US stars in Vancouver was Hannah Kearney who had the best qualifying run in moguls and followed that back up with the top final run to win the gold medal by almost a full point with a score of 26.63. Kearney’s success was a big accomplishment after a disappointing Turin Olympics where she finished 22nd in the qualifying run and didn’t advance to the final.
Heather McPhie was also in the moguls competition for the US in Vancouver and did post the third best qualifying run. Unfortunately for McPhie she wasn’t able to duplicate that run in the final and after some mistakes finished in 18th place.
Schedule
All Times ET, * indicates medals awarded
Thursday, February 6th
9 AM – Women’s Moguls Qualification 1
Saturday, February 8th
9 AM – Women’s Moguls Qualification 2
1 PM – Women’s Moguls Final 1
1:35 PM – Women’s Moguls Final 2
*2:10 PM – Women’s Moguls Final 3
Monday, February 10th
9 AM – Men’s Moguls Qualification 1
9:50 AM – Men’s Moguls Qualification 2
1 PM – Men’s Moguls Final 1
1:35 PM – Men’s Moguls Final 2
*2:10 PM – Men’s Moguls Final 3
Tuesday, February 11th
1 AM – Women’s Ski Slopestyle Qualification
*4 AM – Women’s Ski Slopestyle Final
Thursday, February 13th
1:15 AM – Men’s Ski Slopestyle Qualification
*4:30 AM – Men’s Ski Slopestyle Final
Friday, February 14th
8:45 AM – Women’s Aerials Qualification 1
9:30 AM – Women’s Aerials Qualification 2
12:30 PM – Women’s Aerials Final 1
12:55 PM – Women’s Aerials Final 2
*1:12 PM – Women’s Aerials Final 3
Saturday, February 15th
8:45 AM – Men’s Aerials Qualification 1
9:30 AM – Men’s Aerials Qualification 2
12:30 PM – Men’s Aerials Final 1
12:55 PM – Men’s Aerials Final 2
*1:12 PM – Men’s Aerials Final 3
Tuesday, February 18th
8:45 AM – Men’s Ski Halfpipe Qualification
*12:30 PM – Men’s Ski Halfpipe Final
Thursday, February 20th
2:45 AM – Men’s Ski Cross Seeding
4:30 AM – Men’s Ski Cross 1/8 Finals
5:05 AM – Men’s Ski Cross Quarterfinals
5:25 AM – Men’s Ski Cross Semifinals
*5:39 AM – Men’s Ski Cross Finals
9:30 AM – Women’s Ski Halfpipe Qualification
*12:30 PM – Women’s Ski Halfpipe Final
US Team’s Recent World Championship History
The FIS Freestyle World Ski Championship is held every couple of years with the most recent in March 2013 in Voss, Norway.
The men’s moguls event featured US Olympians Patrick Deneen and Bradley Wilson. Both had great first qualifying runs and reached the final without needing a second run. In the final Wilson came in eighth but Deneen put up a great time and took home the bronze.
In ski cross John Teller had a good qualifying run, 11th best overall, and easily qualified for the 1/8 round. Teller won his 1/8 final and then snuck through to the semifinals with a second place finish in his quarterfinal group. He then got into the final by finishing second in his semifinal. In the final he came in 3rd to take home the bronze.
Three of the four US Olympians in the halfpipe event took part in the world championship. All three made it through to the final with David Wise second in qualifying, Torin Yater-Wallace in third, and Aaron Blunck in ninth. All three were very competitive in the final with only Blunck not medaling in sixth. The US ended up going one-two as David Wise took the gold and Torin Yater-Wallace taking the silver.
In the slopestyle competition two US Olympians competed with both Nick Goepper (1st) and Gus Kenworthy (5th) advancing to the final. Kenworthy slipped to sixth in the final while Goepper slipped as well but still took home the bronze medal.
On the women’s side in the moguls competition three of the four US Olympians were part of the field. All three made the final after qualifying as Hannah Kearney finished first, Heather McPhie was third, and Eliza Outtrim was sixth. Kearney was able to keep her place at the top in the final while McPhie had a poor second run and finished fourth. Outtrim had a poor first run and ended up 13th.
Two US Olympians took part in the halfpipe event. Angeli VanLaanen put up a good first run so second run problems still left her in seventh and qualified for the final. Annalisa Drew didn’t score as high in qualifying but still was tenth, moving her into the final as well. In the final neither skiier could match their qualifying scores and VanLaanen ended up sixth with Drew ending up ninth.
In the aerials event Emily Cook was going for the US. Cook used her second qualifying run to reach the final. She wasn’t able to reach the top eight in the final though after one run so she was eliminated and finished in 10th.
US Olympic History
The men’s moguls competition is one of the originals and the US has medaled in five of the six competitions so far, only failing in 1994. Unfortunately these five medals have only resulted in one gold (1998) and one silver (2002). In Vancouver Bryon Wilson came in third for the US to grab the bronze.
In the five Olympics that have had the men’s aerials competition the US has won three medals, a gold (1998) and two silvers, and has medaled in three of the last four Olympics. In Vancouver Jeret Peterson was top dog for the US as he grabbed the silver.
With only one Olympics so far ski cross doesn’t have a deep medal history, and that history doesn’t include the US at all. The US had two skiers in the field but after Casey Puckett led the way by qualifying 18th both were knocked out in the 1/8 round. Nowhere but up from there for John Teller this year!
The women’s side has been a bit brighter lately for the US. The Americans won two medals in moguls for the first time in Vancouver with Hannah Kearney taking the gold and Shannon Bahrke grabbing bronze. They have now won five medals overall including two golds in women’s moguls. Duplicating the two medals this time will be a challenge for the US!
Women’s aerials hasn’t been so kind to the US with only one medal by the US out of the five Olympics its been contested in. That was a gold won by Nikki Stone in 1998. In Vancouver the US placed three in the final 12 but all struggled in the final with Lacy Schnoor the top finisher from the US in 9th.
The halfpipe and slopestyle competitions are in their first year, so of course there’s no history at the Olympics in those events.
