America’s Wise is smokin’ in halfpipe
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia − Whirling frantically through the snowflakes high above a floodlit halfpipe on Tuesday, David Wise of the United States won gold in the Olympic debut of men’s ski halfpipe in the mountains near Sochi.
Wise earned a score of 92.00 from a panel of five judges in his first of two runs, better by 1.40 points than silver medalist Mike Riddle of Canada. Kevin Rolland of France took the bronze with a score of 88.60 on his second run.
A staple of the ESPN Winter X Games since 2002, ski halfpipe is one of a host of new freestyle skiing events that the International Olympic Committee hopes will draw younger television audiences and a broader base of potential competitors. In theory, its practitioners don’t need to live near big resorts or be outfitted with complex equipment. They do need helmets, though, and not even that will protect them from serious impacts when they land on the rim of the halfpipe or down at the bottom of it. Several competitors in the fin final at Rosa Khutor misjudged their jumps and an tumbled painfully to a stop.
Wise, a 23-year-old aspiring pasto, landed solidly on his skis after five jumps in his winning run during which he executed tricks that were helpfully described by judge Simon Tjernstrom of Sweden as: right-side 900 tail grab grab, left-side dub (double-cored) 1260 mute, mute right 720 opposite mute, switch l left 720 Japan, right dub 1260 mute.