USA freeskier Alex Hall spins gold against the tide

“Creativity is huge,” the Team USA freeskier Alex Hall told Olympics.com in the weeks building up to his second Winter Games here in Beijing.

“It can’t all just be about more spinning,” he added.

A more creative way

It’s something many slopestyle freeskiers will say, perhaps out of a sense of obligation to appearances. No one wants to admit that more spinning is the easiest way to more points. But you get the sense that Hall really means it. He’d rather take the hard road than win in a bland way.

This is a man who practices what he preaches.

It’s precisely his commitment to the style part of the slopestyle discipline that won him his gold medal here with a first run of three that no one in a finals field full of current and former world champions came close to matching.

“My favourite tricks are the ones that play along a creative line – a unique style,” added Hall, who finished the event more than three-and-half points higher than his teammate and closest chaser Nick Goepper. “With progression being so crazy, a lot of people are just choosing to spin more and more and more.

“I like to think of something creative, that no one else is doing, even if it’s less spinning," continued Hall who was born in Alaska and raised in Switzerland before setting up shop in Park City, Utah. "Stuff you wouldn’t think of is the stuff I like most.”

It was precisely the "stuff no one else thought of" that Hall pulled off in his glory run on 16 February at the Genting Snow Park. After fairly tap dancing through the rail section, he blasted through the middle of the second jump, taking flight and then rebounding off the knuckle beyond it – and launching himself back into the air a second time.

Two new tricks bring the house down

It’s a trick honed in the informal ‘knuckle-huck’ competitions born in the freesking scene in recent years.

Only one other rider on the night tried anything like it.

And no one tried the grand finale that Hall pulled from his deep bag of tricks. It seemed to violate the very laws of physics we’re all of us governed by. Spinning through a 1080-degree rotation (three full spins), he turned back against his final spin to pull himself around in the opposite direction to land switch (backward on his skis).

It was a kind of rebuke of the whole notion of “just spinning” and it was good enough for gold. It was something Hall seemed to know right away, as he took a moment and laid his head on the barrier separating the athletes from the spectators.

“That was fun," he said when he raised back up to his full height to receive his score (the only 90+ of the day)

All the spins and rotations the rest of the field could throw out in the two-and-a-half rounds that remained couldn't get near Hall's untouchable run.

"It definitely was the best slopestyle run I've ever done, mainly because it embodied everything I love about skiing and how I approach skiing,” Hall added after sealing his victory. “I’m really glad the creativity was able to shine through and got rewarded.”

Innovation rewarded

It’s rare that creativity – and the courage of one’s convictions – is rewarded with trophies and accolades. But on this cold morning on the outskirts of Beijing, Alexander Hall – the innovator – wouldn’t be denied.

“Creating and finding a way to get on the podium is the perfect representation of the idea of freeskiing,” said Hall, who built these tricks in the months leading up to Beijing at the X Games and Dew Tour and FIS World Cup events.

“I always want to come back and progress my skiing – filming video parts, competitions, big air, slopestyle, rail jams – whatever,” said the new Olympic champion of slopestyle freeskiing who, instead of adding another rotation to an old trick, took the risk to do it his own way.

“And that’s what’s so unique about freeskiing – it really is free and there are a million ways to have success and have fun.

“It’s what draws me to it and keeps me interested,” added the man who somehow found that rare balance between innovation and success on the biggest stage of them all.