Peak Moments from Day 13 of Olympics
USAT’s Sam Cardona-Norberg break down the EPIC night that Team USA’s women had on the ice on Day 13 of Milano-Cortina Olympics.
Sports Seriously
LIVIGNO, Italy — Just before the Olympics, American freestyle skier Alex Ferreira told media in Milan, “It’s time to complete the set.”
Ferreira, 31, won silver in Pyeongchang in 2018 and bronze in Beijing in 2022 in the men’s freeski halfpipe.
Clearly, gold was the goal in Italy.
And as it turned out, Ferreira did it. He snatched the gold medal Friday, Feb. 20 at Livigno Snow Park in one of the last events of these Olympics. His high score of 93.75 came on his final run, edging Estonia’s Henry Sildaru by 0.75.
Fellow USA teammate Nick Goepper nearly won bronze with a score of 89, but was beat by the last skier to go, Canada’s Brendan Mackay, who stole a medal with a score of 91 to hand Goepper fourth place. USA’s Birk Irving was fifth with 88 points.
For years, Ferreira has been one of the world’s highest-ranked and most respected halfpipe freestyle skiers. He has nine X Games medals and finished third in the superpipe in Aspen in the buildup to these Olympics.
He grew up in Aspen, sneaking out of school with friends to watch the world’s best freestyle skiers practice.
“That was the Super Bowl of skiing, if you will, and I absolutely loved it,” Ferreira said prior to these Games. “… The Olympics brings in a ton of weight just because of the timing. You have to wait four years for it to happen each time, and every time it does happen, it’s happening in a new international location, and the whole world is watching.
“The weight of it all and the time of it all kind of brings a bit more reverence to it, I guess.”
