Olympic moguls gold medalist Hannah Kearney has been at it so long, she knows exactly when something goes wrong and Wednesday afternoon on a freezing run at Deer Valley Resort, one mishap cost her Freestyle World Championship gold.
“I missed my grab on my bottom air and, therefore, the trick was incomplete and the score reflected that,” she said. “But, you can look on the bright side; it’s still a silver medal win with a mistake.”
Kearney who ended up with 24.31 points was bested by rival and Canadian star Jennifer Heil who beat the American favorite by less than half a point in Wednesday’s women’s mogul finals.
“I’ve had a ton of trouble off that bottom air all week,” Kearney said. “It was hideous. So, all things considered it’s OK, but it only counts in the competition. I was close and that what makes it so much more bitter.”
When asked how close she was to finishing her trick which may have ensured a gold medal, Kearney said it was as close as it gets.
“I was close,” she said. “My finger touched (the ski), but I didn’t grab it.”
Heil and Kearney were joined at the podium by Heil’s teammate Kristi Richards who finished with 23.71 points.
As an 18-year-old Olympic rookie, Heil’s first trip to the Olympics was right here in Park City in 2002 and she noted that Deer Valley is her favorite resort in the world.
“I love it here,” she said.
U.S. Ski Team members Eliza Outtrim (5th, 23.17) and Heather McPhie (6th, 22.65) also landed in the top 10 in the women’s moguls competition.
In the men’s race, Frenchman Guilbaut Colas dominated the event, finishing with a score of 26.26 and a gold medal.
The Canadian duo of Alexandre Bilodeau (2nd, 25.66) and Mikael Kingsbury (3rd, 25.57) also gained podium spots. American Jeremy Cota came in fourth, with teammates Patrick Deneen in sixth and Joseph Discoe finishing 13th.
Discoe was in the lead at one point and said the bumps were particularly hard due to the sub-zero temperatures.
“I tried to launch it as big as I could to impress the judges somehow,” he said.
The FIS Freestyle World Championships continue tomorrow with women’s and men’s ski slope style finals at Park City Mountain Resort on King’s Crown run at 9:30 a.m., and ski cross qualifiers on Solid Muldoon at Deer Valley.
Women’s aerial qualifiers are Thursday night from 3:45-4:50 p.m., while the men’s are from 7-8:30 p.m. Both qualifiers will be on White Owl at Deer Valley.