Freestyle skiing was a major success story for the US in Sochi. It’s not the traditional Winter Olympic sports at all, but freestyle skiing is a growing discipline that debuted four new events in Sochi. The US won three of those four events and took a silver in the other.

Men’s Aerials

Men’s aerials was not expected to be a strong event for the US but Mac Bohonnon had a great Olympics. After squeaking into the finals field with the sixth and final spot on the second qualification jump Bohonnon went on to advance in the first round of the final and finished fifth overall after narrowly missing out on a spot in the final four with his best jump of the day. The fifth place finish was a bit of a bump back down from 2010 but with Bohonnon still not yet 19 he’ll be a big time challenger in 2018.

Women’s Aerials

The US women started off the aerials competition great with both Ashley Caldwell and Emily Cook advancing on their first jump. They couldn’t duplicate those marks later on though as Caldwell was eliminated on the first jump of the final and Cook was eighth of eight on the second jump. Still the eighth place finish by Cook was the best for the US in the event since Nagano when Nikki Stone won gold.

Men’s Halfpipe

Making it’s Olympic debut was the freestyle skiing version of halfpipe. The US only had one skier perform really well in the qualification round, David Wise. He was second in the qualification round with Aaron Blunck also sneaking into the final in 12th. Both improved with Blunck finishing seventh and Wise winning the first ever gold in the event.

Women’s Halfpipe

On the women’s side all four of the US women advanced to the final with three in the top five (Brita Sigourney, Angeli Van Laanen, and Maddie Bowman). In the final only one of them could make a run at the medals, Maddie Bowman, and her two runs were both good enough to win the first ever gold in the event.

Men’s Moguls

Moguls had produced a men’s medal for four straight Olympics for the US. They couldn’t quite make that five as Patrick Deneen came up short in the last round of the final. After a poor first run Deneen had a good event overall moving steadily up the field and reaching the final six. Bradley Wilson was the other competitor for the US and after a good first run in qualifying couldn’t duplicate it in run one of the final and was eliminated there. It was the first time since 1994 that the US didn’t medal.

Women’s Moguls

the women’s moguls event saw a bit more success for the US than the men’s side. Heather McPhie was eliminated in run one of the final but missed out on moving on by a single spot. Both Eliza Outtrim and Hannah Kearney made the final with Outtrim ending up sixth and Kearney taking home a bronze. It was a bit of a letdown after Kearney’s gold in 2010 but it was only the second time that the US had medaled in back-to-back Olympics in the event and the first since the first two moguls competitions in 1992 and 1994.

Men’s Slopestyle

Of all the events debuting in Sochi, heck of all the events in Sochi, none went better for the US than men’s slopestyle. The US placed three of their four in the top five on the qualification round and all four into the final. Then in the final the US went even better grabbing all three medals in a sweep of the podium by Joss Christensen, Gus Kenworthy, and Nick Goepper. In most events in Sochi Bobby Brown’s ninth place finish would have been strong for the US, in this event if was the fourth best among his countrymen. It was the third ever medal sweep by the US and first since sweeping halfpipe snowboarding in 2002.

Women’s Slopestyle

The US placed all three of their women into the final in women’s slopestyle as well. They couldn’t duplicate the 1-2-3 of the men though as Keri Herman and Julia Krass finished 10th and 11th. Devin Logan did add another medal to the US count with a silver as the US medaled in all four of the new freestyle skiing events in Sochi.

Men’s Ski Cross

The only event in freestyle skiing where the US didn’t have a top-eight finisher was men’s ski cross. Well, they didn’t have anyone in women’s ski cross so that’s not totally true. Still men’s ski cross didn’t go as well. Ski cross can be very hit or miss and for John Teller what was a decent run that had him in contention to move on into the quarterfinals quickly turned into a DNF as he and another skier were vying for position and he was forced off course. Hopefully the US will have some success in ski cross in the future but part of the issue is the lack of competitors as seen by the US only having one man and no women in Sochi.

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Curling
Nordic Combined
Figure Skating
Ski Jumping
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