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After cheering from the sidelines as his younger brother Luca qualified for two Olympic finals and claimed a bronze medal earlier in the Games, it was Ben Harrington’s turn to step into the spotlight in the men’s Freeski Halfpipe qualification round.
Cold temperatures and steady snowfall set the scene at the halfpipe, where Harrington was joined by teammates Fin Melville Ives, Gustav Legnavsky and Luke Harrold, all vying for a place inside the top 12 and a spot in the Olympic final. At the end of day, coach Tom Willmott could describe the competition as “A full rollercoaster at the big show of the Olympics.”
First competitor to drop into the halfpipe, Melville Ives came out firing, showing impressive amplitude on his opening switch right double cork 1080 before moving into a left double cork 1620 and a left alley-oop double cork 1080. But after tweaking the grab hard on the fourth hit, he lost a ski in mid-air and was looking to his second run to unveil the full plan.
Luke Harrold also got off to a great start, showcasing a good variety of tricks and grabs. Landing back-to-back 900s into a switch left 720, he set up for back-to-back 1620s but landed in the back seat losing key execution points. His score of 65.50 left him with work to do on run two and placed him 11th after the first run.
Harrington got a clean run down on his first go through the pipe, earning 73.50 with a tidy combo of frontside 720, switch left 900, switch right 1080, left double cork 1260, right 900. He would lead the Kiwi contingent at the end of the first run, sitting in ninth.
Gustav Legnavsky was unable to complete his first run cleanly, landing low on his fourth trick and losing a ski as it popped out of the binding — another Kiwi looking to reset and deliver on his second attempt.
Heading into run two, Melville Ives went huge on his third trick, boosting high above the lip of the pipe, but crashed hard on the landing.
Coach Tom Willmott commented, “Fin came in as world champion, ranked number one. We had qualified postponed yesterday due to snow, so today was the day, it was big Friday. He was using qualies as a warm up the main event tonight and he was all in going real big. Fine margins, he was pushing the limits. He’s going to be devasted, he’ll be gutted but he will pick himself up, he’ll come back from this. He’s a bit of a warrior.”
Looking to be playing it safe on his second run to secure his finals spot, Harrold pulled back the 1620s to 1260s. Everything looked to be going to plan until the landing on the very last trick, when he lost a ski. Unable to improve his score, he slipped out of the qualification spots.
“It was a tough day out there,” said Harrold. “Training went well but, unfortunately, I couldn’t put down the run I wanted to in the two runs. I just want to say thanks to everyone who supported me through my whole journey, it’s been pretty incredible. I couldn’t put it down today for you guys but I know I will eventually.”
“He certainly put it out there,” said Willmott. “He came off the back of a really good training level, he was performing at a really high level. He went for a safer run. You’ll have seen that last landing, he was millimetres away from being clean but just had a little hand touch which put his score down.
"That put the pressure on for the second run. He had a bit more information for the second run, so he was able to play with a safer run with the double 12s at the bottom and then his ski popped off last hit. I mean, these things happen, it’s part of the reason we have two runs with the best run counting, but so gutting for Luke there who could have been in the final challenging for the podium.”
Legnavsky landed a clean second run, but his score of 71 wouldn’t be enough to lift him into the top 12.
“I’m pretty bummed,” said Legnavsky. I have more, I know I have more.”
“Gustav has had such an amazing comeback from a big knee injury about 12 months ago,” explained Willmott. “He’s come back so strong, he’s put it in all the work and he’s put down a run at the end of it. His first run was a challenge, he crashed. Second run, under pressure put a run down that he can be proud of. Unfortunately it didn’t give him the points to get in the final but what a warrior.”
Harrington lifted his score slightly to 75.25 on his second run, but with the field pushing hard, he found himself sitting on the bubble in 12th place as the final skiers dropped in. It wasn’t until the final competitor had taken their run that he could breathe a sigh of relief, knowing he’d be back in the start gate for finals.
“It’s an insane feeling,” said Harrington. “My biggest goal was just to come out and land some runs. I had knee surgery just over a year ago, so it was a mission to get back here but we did it.”
“What a performance,” said Willmott. “Benni is so stoked to be in an Olympic final. As you might know, he got real close last time, he came 13th, he was the wrong side of the bubble, and had a pretty nasty crash himself (in 2022) putting it all out in run two. This time he put down run one, stepped it up, finished on the right side of the bubble and is in the Olympic final. How good’s that?”