Goepper saves his best for last
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Nick Goepper apologized to his family for making them wait.
In his first two runs, Goepper hadn’t done anything that would get him in contention for an Olympic medal.
But on that third time down the mountain, Goepper nailed a soaring run that gave his family a sigh of relief and gave the Indiana skier his second Olympic medal.
Goepper claimed silver in men’s ski slopestyle at Phoenix Snow Park on Sunday with a third run that scored 93.60 and finished second to Norwegian Oystein Braaten, who won gold with a score of 95.00.
“I was thinking this is it, this is my final chance, I’m at my second Olympics,” said Goepper, who won bronze as part of a U.S. sweep in Sochi four years ago. “I want a medal and I just really visualized and stuck to what I was training and nailed it.”
Goepper, 23, opted to conserve his energy in his first two runs after making small mistakes that he knew would take him out of contention for a medal.
But on his third run, Goepper coupled massive jumps with the technical rails he’s known for after growing up in the Midwest.
Needing the run to get in contention, Goepper spun three different directions on the three jumps. He ended with a rightside triple cork 1440 – which is three off-axis flips with four spins – that had two different grabs.
It was the same jump that helped him medal in Sochi, where teammates Joss Christensen won gold and Gus Kenworthy won silver. Kenworthy finished 12th on Sunday. “I knew that it was what I was hoping for and I know that that caliber of run would put me up there in the top three,” Goepper said. “There were some really good guys that were still to drop. I wasn’t sure if I was going to stay up there, but it was a nail-biting moment down there waiting at the bottom.”
None of the four skiers after Goepper improved on his score, and Goepper celebrated at the base of the course.
After accepting a stuffed animal of Soohorang, the Pyeongchang mascot, Goepper joined his family. As he hugged his parents, siblings and girlfriend, he wanted them to know he wasn’t trying to add to their stress.
With smiles on their faces and an Olympic medal to celebrate again, waiting for Goepper to land that last run seemed like a faint memory.
“It just felt incredible,” he said. “At the top, I was just visualizing myself landing on the last jump, arms open, just screaming. It just all came to fruition.”