American Skier Wise Wins Gold in New Halfpipe Event
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia - David Wise, a native of Reno, Nev., who has excelled in a sport that is considered extreme while busting the extreme sports stereotype, won the inaugural ski halfpipe Tuesday at the Sochi Games.
Mike Riddle of Canada won silver, and Kevin Rolland of France took bronze in the new Olympic sport, a high-flying cousin to the better-known version on snowboards.
Wise, 23, is married and has a 2-year-old daughter. A bit of an undude in a world of free spirits, Wise credits his family with grounding him as he soared to the top of the sport, winning each of the past three Winter X Games gold medals, the last in late January.
Reaching heights every bit the equal of Shaun White on a snowboard, 20 feet or more above the lip of the 22-foot halfpipe, Wise brought an eclectic combination of spins and flips from every direction: spinning to his left while going forward, spinning to his left going backward, spinning to his right going forward and spinning to his right going backward.
The nighttime competition capped a day of low clouds and bursts of rain at the mountain venues. It was the rare competition at these Winter Olympics that looked wintry. Officials held umbrellas over many of the skiers as they waited to take their turns in the halfpipe, and the wet snow left them drenched by the time they reached the bottom.
Crews spent much of the time trying to keep the halfpipe from melting into a pool of slush. They repeatedly sprinkled it with salt and sprayed it with water from large hoses to help the soft snow refreeze into a smoother surface.
The event was expected to be a friendly showdown between Wise and Torin Yater-Wallace, both of the United States.
Yater-Wallace, 18, of Basalt, Colo., near the ski town of Aspen, has been a sort of protégé to Wise, the two pushing each other into more difficult tricks and trading spots atop podiums around the world.
But two months ago, it appeared Yater-Wallace might miss the Olympics. He sustained a collapsed lung in December in a routine physical therapy session. Once out of the hospital and back in the halfpipe, he crashed and broke two ribs, collapsing the lung again. He spent eight days in a hospital and missed all of the qualifying events for the United States.
Healed again, Yater-Wallace was given a spot on the Olympic roster by virtue of his medal chances - selected over Gus Kenworthy, who hoped to compete in both halfpipe and slopestyle, where he won a silver medal last week.
Yater-Wallace's only competition before the Games came at the Winter X Games, in his hometown, where he finished 10th. It ended his streak of three consecutive top-three finishes, all coming in Wise's shadow.
In Tuesday's qualifications, with 29 men vying for 12 spots in the finals, Yater-Wallace fell on both runs and did not get a spot in the final.
The women's ski halfpipe competition is scheduled for Thursday.
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