Mistakes bump U.S. team out of medal contention

Four first-time Olympians still see themselves having bright future

So much promise.

The American women were poised for greatness Sunday on the PyeongChang Olympic moguls course. Hopes for Olympic glory grew as the four women — Ski & Snowboard Club Vail’s Morgan Schild and Tess Johnson, Telluride’s Keaton McCargo and Vail native Jaelin Kauf — qualified for Sunday’s threeround final. But things did not go as planned for the team of four first-time Olympians.

It started with the 20-year-old Schild, who seemed to ski well in the first run of 20 skiers, throwing the only corked flip of the competition, but judges left her ranked below the cut for the second final of 12. Schild was obviously dismayed with the score. It was hard to tell what she did wrong.

In the 12-skier final, things got worse for the American women, with none of them making the super final of six skiers. France’s Perrine Laffont won gold, slipping past 2014 Sochi champion Justine Dufour-Lapointe of Canada by less than a point. Kazakhstan’s Yulia Galysheva took the bronze, her country’s first medal in moguls.

Vail’s 17-year-old Johnson missed the super final cut with a bobbled landing on the second jump. The team’s oldest member, 22-year-old McCargo, had an uncharacteristic slip in the middle of the course. But it was the mistake by Kauf, the current World Cup leader and America’s best hope for gold in South Korea, that stung the most. She wasn’t upset with the scoring. She admitted to mistakes and sloppiness.

Kauf said she didn’t feel too much pressure, and she felt composed at the top. But looking out on the massive crowd, knowing her family and friends were watching, may have caused some nervousness.

“It is different, and you do have it in the back of your head that this is the Olympics, this is the pinnacle of our sport and the biggest stage, so I’m sure it does have a little to do with it,” said the 21-year-old Wyoming resident whose parents were moguls champions. “There’s a lot I can accomplish moving forward. Of course I wanted to be up there on the podium today. But there’s the crystal globe this year, world championships next year and another Olympics in four years. My career is not over.”

The American women’s moguls team has a bright future. The skiers are young and talented, and can learn lessons from these Olympics that will lead to success down the road, McCargo said.

“I think our team was one of the strongest in the field. I think we had the potential for any of us to get on the podium tonight and we all just made little mistakes that cost us, and that’s super frustrating,” said McCargo, who admitted she felt some pressure from the increased attention that included a bar in Telluride naming a drink after her, along with Telluride Olympians Gus Kenworthy and Hagen Kearney. “But that’s not something to get upset about and to know in the back of our minds that we are the best and that we can still be the best. I think the next year and the year after, we will just grow in strength and promise. We are disappointed for sure, but you have to move on and look to the future, and I think there is so much promise.”