Teen wins first U.S. gold

Snowboarder pulls off trick called triple cork

The Washington Post

BONGPYEONG, South Korea — Red Gerard carried his board, just about as tall as him, in his right hand and raised his left fist in the air. Chants of “U-S-A!” filled the bottom of the slopestyle course, many coming from brothers who had ushered him into the sport.

Minutes earlier, Gerard had stood in last place out of 11 riders still alive Saturday in the men’s slopestyle finals. Now, he awaited his score after an electrifying run that ended with a trick — the Backside triple cork 1440. The score flashed: 87.16. It had vaulted him into first.

Gerard, 17, a snowboarder from Cleveland by way of Colorado, won the United States’ first medal of the Pyeongchang Olympics, earning a stunning gold in men’s slopestyle with a creative final run that ended with a spinning, acrobat final jump, his 115-pound, 5foot-5 frame flying through the mountain chill.

When he landed, he could see his own face —about a dozen of them, in fact. Gerard’s cheering section became an attraction of its own at Phoenix Snow Park. Eighteen family members and close friends —”bigtime partyers,” Gerard called them — traveled to watch Gerard compete. They waved signs (sample: “We’re here to get Gerarded”) and cardboard cutouts of Gerard’s face.

They erupted when the final score of Canadian Max Pirrot flashed — 86, good only for silver. The youngest competitor in the event was also its best.

Gerard’s medal validated the Americans’ performance in the event from Sochi in 2014, when Sage Kostenburg won gold in an upset. Gerard is known for his slight frame and inventive style, the way he navigates a slopestyle course’s array of railings and jumps in a different manner from his competition.

“You want to be creative,” Gerard said after qualifying, “and take your own route.”

The United States won no medals on the first full day of the Winter Olympics, its first opening-day shutout since 1998. Gerard ensured the Americans would not go empty-handed on Day 2.

“Every time Red goes into a contest, he has one of the most creative runs, with such a creative style,” teammate and close friend Kyle Mack said.

The youngest of five brothers and second-youngest of seven siblings, Gerard learned snowboarding by following around his brothers, first to small hills outside his childhood home in Cleveland, then to the mountains of Colorado, where his family moved when he was 8.