Shining silver lining
Goepper first male U.S. freestyle skier with two Olympic medals BONGPYEONG, SOUTH KOREA» Before his final run in one of the most competitive slopestyle contests ever, standing atop what many called the best slopestyle course ever built, Indiana’s Nick Go
After flipping and spinning one of his runs down the Olympic course, he raised his arms and soon was crowned with a silver medal, becoming the first American man to win two medals in freestyle skiing in Winter Olympic history.
After making mistakes on his first two runs, he had to land his final attempt, which culminated in a triple-cork 1440 that he stomped with a kettle-drum thwack that resonated across the cheering throng.
“I really had to dig deep and trust myself,” said the 23-year-old Hoosier, who skied a hand-built terrain park in his backyard as a kid and won bronze at the Sochi Olympics four years ago.
It wasn’t enough to best Norway’s Oystein Braaten, whose first run in the three-run final held for gold with an amazing linkage of switch double-cork
“Honestly, when my family comes out to watch these competitions, it’s like more pressure than anything. So I’m like, I don’t want to let Mom and Dad down, I have to at least make it to the finals.”
U.S. Olympian Nick Goepper, freestyle skiing’s slopestyle silver medalist
1440s on the final two hits. Canada’s Alex Beaulieu-Marchand — the only skier in the competition to stick all three of his finals runs cleanly — won bronze, with a strong second run that included an impressive triple-cork 1440.
The flurry of triple corks — three backflips while spinning 3½, four or even 4½ rotations, with some skiers grabbing two different parts of their skis in midair — highlighted one of the most progressive slopestyle contests ever.
The rapid pace of today’s freeskiing — both in slopestyle and halfpipe — has spread across the globe. With a stronger international field that saw six countries send skiers into the final rounds Sunday, Americans are no longer the dominant force in slopestyle. With two fiery qualification rounds featuring the most advanced trickery in the sport, any hope for a second Olympic podium sweep by the Americans was dashed as Olympic newcom- ers Alex Hall and McRae Williams struggled to make the final 12.
Telluride’s Gus Kenworthy qualified seventh with two solid runs, but that consistency eluded him in the finals. In the first round of finals, only four skiers landed mistake-free runs and Kenworthy struggled to stay clean, making slight bobbles. Like Goepper, it all came down to his final run. With a slight mistake coming out of the rail section on that third lap, his chances of a second Olympic medal evaporated. He finished 12th.
“It would have been hard to get on the podium today. I think maybe I could have done it if I landed my run, I don’t know. I was trying to remind myself that win or lose, I still have a lot to be proud of,” he said.
Just as Kenworthy has had a remarkable journey since medaling at Sochi and becoming one of action sports’ first openly gay athletes, Goepper has traveled a profound path since he first shined on the Olympic stage. After the hot glow of his Sochi bronze, Goepper fell into depression, leaning on alcohol and even pondering suicide.
“Drinking was a symptom of the problem and unfortunately that symptom got pretty bad at one point,” he said, noting how a couple of months at a recovery center in 2015 helped him restore order to his life. He hasn’t had a drink for 2½ years.
“I’m so stoked to be back to where I am today,” he said.
Silver is an exclamation point on Goepper’s triumphant return to form. His mom, dad, sisters, brother and girlfriend were in the crowd Sunday. They were there for him when he found his nadir and he wanted to show them his new apex.
Arms wide after that sonorous slap of his skis on the final jump, he thought: “Thank goodness I landed a run in front of my family.”
“Honestly, when my family comes out to watch these competitions, it’s like more pressure than anything. So I’m like, I don’t want to let Mom and Dad down, I have to at least make it to the finals,” he said, Old Glory on his shoulders. “And when I got to the finals, I have to at last make it to the podium so I don’t let Mom and Dad down.”