Steamboat Springs – Jeremy Bloom laid down an Olympic gold-medal mogul run Friday. All he has to do now is wait for the Olympics.
The 23-year-old Loveland native used the run – described by U.S. Freestyle Ski Team head coach Jeff Wintersteen as “flawless” – to secure his ticket to Turin. Now he just has to repeat it.
“Even if the judges didn’t put me in first place, I really accomplished everything I wanted to (Friday),” Bloom said after joining women’s moguls winner Hannah Kearney of Norwich, Vt., as the first skiers named to the U.S. Olympic team. “That was as good as I’ve ever skied.”
Bloom, a former standout for the University of Colorado football team who passed up his final two seasons in order to pursue skiing, showed flashes of his All-America speed and agility on Steamboat’s Voo Doo Run on Friday. Bouncing off the bumps like would-be tacklers, he landed a clean 720 Iron Cross (two spins with skis crossed) off the top jump and gathered speed down the course with near-perfect form before capping off the display with an off-axis “D-Spin 720” (a backflip/720-degree spin combo).
After a lackluster qualifying run left him near the bottom of pack, he looked on calmly as his second-run score of 27.82 held up through the remainder of the 12-man field at the U.S. Olympic team trials. Only Steamboat local and 2002 Olympic silver medalist Travis Mayer could pose a realistic challenge, coming up just short with a score of 27.57. Toby Dawson of Vail rounded out the all-Colorado podium with a 26.84.
“(Bloom’s) and T. Mayer’s runs were gold and silver in Torino,” Wintersteen said. “They were flawless (Friday), both of them.”
Unfortunately, only one skier from the men’s and women’s teams would earn the right to compete at the Olympics at this winner-take-all wild-card qualifier, creating an unusual internal battle within the traditionally unified U.S. team. While some competitors voiced frustration about the scoring in the judged event, Bloom said he believes the team will manage to keep things in perspective as qualifying heats up on the World Cup circuit until the remainder of the team is named Jan. 25.
“It’s not like figure skating,” he said. “We’re competitors, but we’re all friends.”
The friendly competition moved downtown to the ski jumps of Howelsen Hill on Friday night, where Steamboat local Ryan St. Onge and Emily Cook of Belmont, Mass., earned their tickets to Turin in freestyle aerials competition.
St. Onge, a three-time winner on the World Cup circuit, twice stomped the most difficult trick in his aerial arsenal – three backflips with four twists – to post the top combined score of 240.93 points as his local fan club rattled cowbells and waved signs in support of “Flyin’ Ryan.” Second place went to defending World Cup champion Jeret Peterson of Boise, Idaho, with 197.56, while Olympic silver medalist Joe Pack of Park City, Utah, was third (195.96.)
“I couldn’t believe the noise before my second jump up there. The crowd was so loud that I couldn’t hear anything from the top, and I knew it was my time, that I just had to drop in and go with it,” St. Onge said. “Knowing for sure that you are going to the Olympics, there’s nothing that beats that. Unfortunately, now I have to start training to win that, too.”
Scott Willoughby can be reached at 303-820-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com.
