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With weather forcing a reshuffle of the schedule, men’s Freeski Halfpipe qualifying and finals were held on the same day, leaving athletes with little time to rest and reset. However, Ben Harrington proved he was more than up for the challenge.
First competitor to drop into the halfpipe under the lights, he got the first run in the bag – one of only two competitors who would be able to do so.
Building difficulty as he progressed down the pipe, he opened with an alley-oop double frontside 720, then a switch left 900, switch right 1080, a left double cork 1260 and a right 900. A slight hand touch on the wall cost him crucial execution points, but his score of 61.25 kept him in the mix.
With many in the field battling first-run nerves or pushing past the limits of clean landings, the leaderboard was set for change as riders lined up for their remaining two attempts.
Harrington made a strong start on run two, boosting high on his opening hit, but landed too low on his second trick and couldn’t regain control to complete the run. His score wouldn’t improve, and attention shifted to run three.
Meanwhile, the competition began to ignite. Henry Sildaru (EST) and Alex Ferreira (USA) unleashed 1620s to push scores into the 90s, while US teammates Nick Goepper and Birk Irving scored in the high 80s. Harrington sat seventh after the second run.
As anticipated, competition went into another gear as competitors lined up for their third and final chance to impress the judges and went all out.
Harrington answered by putting down his best performance of the competition. Repeating his first run tricks, he improved the execution and lifted his score to a 73.75. He would finish his day in ninth place.
“I wish I could have done that nice and clean on the first run so I could have upped it those next two runs but that’s just how the ball rolls,” said Harrington. He continued:
“I was just happy to be here, honestly. I was stoked to make finals at the Olympics. That’s been a dream of mine for a long time. I ticked that box, so I was pretty jazzed on that for sure. I always just want to come in and land a run, that’s all I can really ask for, and I did that in finals, I did that in qualifiers. The experience was awesome, I had my friends and family here. It was so much fun.”
Harrington said he had teammate Fin Melville Ives, who suffered a heavy crash earlier in the day, in his thoughts.
“It was definitely really rough, to see him go down was really hard. He’s in my thoughts, he’s in my prayers. I was skiing for him tonight for sure.”
Canada’s Brendan Mackay was another athlete who saved his best for last, climbing from 10th to a podium finish with a standout final run to secure bronze.
Men’s Freeski Halfpipe medals:
Gold: Alex Ferreira (USA)
Silver: Henry Sildaru (EST)
Bronze: Brendan Mackay (CAN)