Norway’s Ruud grabs freeski slopestyle gold; more Olympic pain for Shiffrin as Austria win team combined

Freestyle skier Birk Ruud of Norway earned the gold medal in the men’s slopestyle event on Tuesday after an impeccable first run on a course that befuddled many of his competitors at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.

Alex Hall, the gold medallist four years ago in Beijing, won silver under cloudy skies on the slopes in the Alpine mountain town of Livigno. His feat extended Team USA’s remarkable medal streak in slopestyle over the years.

Luca Harrington of New Zealand, one of the younger competitors at age 21, claimed bronze in the contest, which forces skiers to slide across rails and perform aerial tricks to impress the judges with difficulty and originality. The best score from each skier’s three runs determines the rankings.

Much of the field struggled from the start, with eight of the 12 skiers falling in the first round.

Rudd, however, put down a superb first run that lofted him to the top of the leaderboard. Hall tried to catch him but fell backward after coming off a rail on his third attempt.

Final scores came in at 86.28 for Ruud, 85.75 for Hall and 85.15 for Harrington.

The 25-year-old Ruud, who earned gold in big air in Beijing and will have a chance to defend that title starting Sunday, pumped his fists and hugged the other medallists as he took the podium.

“It was kind of the last piece to the collection, with big air and slopestyle,” Ruud said of his new medal. “It’s a beautiful feeling and a special moment. I’ll try to take it in.”

Hall clapped his hands and smiled and said he was pleased with his result. Team USA have earned a slopestyle medal in every Olympics since the event was introduced to the schedule in 2014.

The 27-year-old Hall had wobbled on his first attempt on Tuesday so knew he had to rebound going forward. He executed well on his second run, one he said he had never fully completed in practice. It was the effort he needed to reach the podium.

“I was so stoked to land that run,” Hall said. “It was tricky out there for sure, just a little bit flat light, so definitely hard to see on the jumps.”

“I knew I had to go all out,” Hall added. “The talent’s just so incredible.”

Jesper Tjader, holder of the bronze in Beijing, was in medal contention going into his third run of the day but crash-landed off a rail, sending one of his skis flying. Tjader finished in fifth place.

Austria claim team combined

Mikaela Shiffrin suffered more Winter Olympic pain on Tuesday after the US ski star failed to claim a medal in the women’s team combined, bringing back memories of her disastrous performance at the Beijing Games four years ago.

America’s top team were firm favourites to win gold after Breezy Johnson topped the times in the morning’s downhill run, but Shiffrin stuttered through her slalom and the pair finished out of the medals, in fourth.

Shiffrin’s unusually underpowered display in a discipline she has dominated for years allowed Austria’s second-ranked duo of Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber to claim gold.

Johnson and Shiffrin, already world champions in the discipline, had a slender lead of 0.06sec over Austria 2’s downhill specialist Raedler.

Shiffrin’s World Cup form had been so good that the prospect of any other winners seemed impossible, but she was only 15th fastest down the slope in Cortina d’Ampezzo, her flop costing new downhill champion Johnson a second gold medal in northern Italy.

Shiffrin left Beijing without a single Olympic medal four years ago -- failing to finish three of six races -- and her disappointing display in her favoured discipline came in complete contrast to her form throughout this season.

The 30-year-old, who previously won Olympic golds in slalom (2014) and giant slalom (2018) and a combined silver in Pyeongchang, has won a record 108 races on the World Cup circuit, including seven of this season’s eight slalom races.

But she was a full second slower than Emma Aicher whose session-leading time of 44.38sec gave Germany silver.

An American pairing did claim a medal, but it was the USA 2 pairing of Jacquiline Wiles and Paula Moltzan, who took bronze, the latter almost half a second faster than Shiffrin in the slalom run.

There will now be huge pressure on Shiffrin for next week’s slalom, the final women’s alpine skiing event at this year’s Olympics.

Petra Vlhova, Shiffrin’s main rival for slalom honours before suffering a knee ligament injury, made her return to competition after two years away but failed to finish her run.

There was also disappointment for Italy as only one of the host nation’s four teams managed to complete the race.

Sofia Goggia, the downhill bronze medallist, lost control of her skis and skidded off the piste in the morning, thankfully keeping enough control to not smash into the netting.

And Laura Pirovano’s impressive downhill run, the Italian finishing 0.27sec behind Johnson, was for nothing as Martina Peterlini was one of eight athletes to fail to complete the slalom.

The team combined made a successful Olympic debut at the this year’s Games, with Switzerland’s Franjo von Allmen and Tanguy Nef winning the men’s event on Monday.

It comprises two racers from the same nation racing a downhill and a slalom, with the fastest aggregate time earning the gold medal.

Countries are allowed to enter multiple teams in the event, with women’s skiing powerhouses the USA, Switzerland, Italy and Austria each having four pairings entered on Tuesday.

Agencies