Canada’s Roz Groenewoud finished out of medal position in the women’s ski halfpipe event in Sochi.
The Calgarian fell on the first jump of her first run in the finals, giving her a miniscule score. She had another chance, though, as only the best score of two runs counts. She achieved a score of 74.20 on her second run, but it wasn’t enough to pull her into the top three.
She finished in 7th place overall.
American Maddie Bowman took the gold with a score of 89.00 and France’s Marie Martinod got silver with a score of 85.40. Japan’s Ayana Onozuka won bronze with a score of 79.00.
In the end, what separated the winners from the rest was largely their ability to stay on their feet.
It was a rough event for many of the women – half of the competitors, including Groenewoud, fell during one of their two runs. A seventh, French skier Anais Caradeux, withdrew before the finals competition. According to news reports, it was because of a head injury she sustained during qualification.
American Angeli VanLaanen fell and scraped her face along the ice of the halfpipe. She seemed okay afterward – just bleeding slightly from a cut on the top of her nose. Annalisa Drew, also from the United States, hit the lip of the halfpipe while landing a jump early in her run and fell backwards into the pipe on her second run, which kept her out of medal contention.
Mirjam Jaeger of Switzerland also fell in the second run, losing a ski pole in the process.
Another American skier, Brita Sigourney, fell hard onto the halfpipe in her first run. A medical team ran onto the course to attend to her, but she eventually stood up and skied off safely by herself. She still completed her second run, scoring a respectable 76.00.
Groenewoud was a medal favourite going into the competition. She came first in the 2011 World Cup, and second in the 2013 and 2014 X Games. But she had knee surgery in mid-December, which may have affected her performance.
A second Canadian, Keltie Hansen, finished just outside of the finals, in 13th place.
Comments