Medals update: Kiwi Nico Porteous dethrones David Wise for men’s freeski halfpipe crown
Nico Porteous of New Zealand took the gold in the men's halfpipe, the final freestyle skiing event of these Beijing 2022 Games, and was joined on the podium by David Wise, who took silver, and bronze winner Alex Ferreira (both of USA).
Freestyle Skiing
New Zealand’s Nico Porteous spun best and highest among the 12 men’s halfpipe athletes at a frigid Genting Snow Park in the final event of the freestyle skiing programme at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games Beijing.
Americans David Wise (the two-time and defending Olympic champion) and Alex Ferreira finished with the silver and bronze respectively in a best-run-of-three competition that showcased all of the world’s top-ten male halfpipe freeskiers.
"I'm so, so happy and I'm currently over the moon. I still can't really believe it," said Porteous after the event.
"The weather conditions were tough today," he added. "It was very slow and it was quite challenging. But I stomped what I knew and tried my best and left everything out there."
Asked what his plans are for the future, the Kiwi shrugged: "I'm just going to keep skiing and enjoying my passion and just keep being me, I guess."
The finals were hampered by unpredictable wind gusts and the morning’s first three skiers fell. But the conditions seemed to have no negative impact on New Zealand’s Porteous – bronze medal-winner from PyeongChang 2018 – who opened up a huge lead over the rest of the field with his first run.
With back-to-back 1620s and a stylish alley-oop flatspin 900, Porteous knocked defending Olympic halfpipe champion Wise out of top spot with a massive score of 93.00 to set the marker high heading into rounds two and three.
The increasing winds and plummeting temperatures took a toll on the second round of runs as all but two skiers (Noah Bowman of Canada and Team USA’s Aaron Blunck) failed to improve on their first-run scores.
Porteous was on top of the standings heading into the third and final run – followed by USA’s Wise in second and his teammate Ferreira in third. And there were to be no changes to the top three as visibility and wind continued to impact the skiing.
Porteous added gold to the historic bronze he won four years ago.
For Wise (with the silver), it’s a third Olympic freeski halfpipe medal and a first that’s not gold. Ferreira added a bronze to the silver he won in PyeongChang.
“It was a pretty wild day out there with the wind, but you know, that's part of our competition - you can't always schedule it on the perfect day," said Wise after the finals. "I'm just super proud to be out here still hanging in there with these guys."
“It feels unreal. We're a bunch of workhorses, I guess," Ferreira said about getting on the podium with his close friend Wise. "The hardest workers get up on the podium and Dave's a great friend of mine.”
This men’s halfpipe finals brought the curtain down on the freeski programme of these Beijing Games.
Men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe results
- 1 - Nico Porteous (NZL) 93.00
- 2 - David Wise (USA) 90.75
- 3 - Alex Ferreira (USA) 86.75