Sauze d’Oulx, Italy – For the briefest of moments, it appeared the United States had won another medal in freestyle moguls skiing. That was before the public address announcer corrected himself and gave gold medalist Jennifer Heil back to her rightful nation of Canada.
“I was a little disappointed,” Heil said after the blunder. “But hopefully they’ll raise the Canadian flag and not the American flag (at the medal ceremony).”
Heil, who entered Saturday night’s competition as the reigning World Cup champion and heavy favorite, disappointed no one under the lights at Sauze d’Oulx. She blitzed the rock-solid bump course in 26.69 seconds for the second-fastest time of the night, tacking on two stylish aerials – a 360 and a backflip with an iron cross – between sharp, staccato turns for the top score of 26.50 points out of a possible 30. Defending Olympic gold medalist Kari Traa of Norway finished second with a score of 25.65 while Sandra Laoura claimed the first women’s freestyle medal in history for France.
The night’s biggest disappointment came from the Americans, who failed to medal in the event for only the second time in Olympic history. Moguls world champion Hannah Kearney, 19, stumbled on her second turn out of the start in qualifying, then failed to regain her composure before flailing the landing on her first jump, a 360. Her score of 20.80 was 22nd in the field of 30 starters. Only 20 made the cut for finals.
“It’s disappointing. She had a little bobble right out of the start and I think it just rattled her a little bit,” U.S. freestyle coach Jeff Winter- steen said. “We had a great shot at winning this thing with Hannah in there, so it’s tough.”
In Kearney’s absence the weight to medal fell on the shoulders of Michelle Roark of Denver, competing in her first Olympics. Roark, 31, had posted a string of top results on the World Cup tour this season, including back-to-back victories in events leading up to the Winter Games. After finishing fourth in qualifying, she was unable to find her top form in the medal round, settling for 18th place overall with a score of 20.04. Shannon Bahrke of Tahoe City, Calif., was the top American finisher in 10th place.
“I think I went for it a little too much. I went a little too big on that top air and missed my landing bad, unfortunately,” Roark said. “But I’d rather go for it and be last than not go for it and be fourth. It was an all-or-nothing sort of thing for me, and it just wasn’t quite there. But it’s been a great, great experience.”
The gold medal served as redemption for Heil, 22, who finished fourth at the 2002 Salt Lake Games by a mere .01 of a point, then took a year away from competition to rediscover her love for the sport and rededicate herself. After qualifying first earlier in the day, she was last out of the start house in the Olympic final, unseating Traa for the dramatic victory.
“It’s definitely a joy for me. To be an Olympic champion is something you have to earn,” Heil said. “Finishing off the podium by .01, that’s such a small margin. I guess it gave me a lot of confidence for the future because it was so close. But it also showed me that the little things can make a difference, so over the last three years I’ve been building and training incredibly hard to cover all those small details to make sure that that .01 didn’t happen again.”
Traa, meanwhile, graciously accepted her defeat as she became the first woman in freestyle history to win gold (2002), silver and bronze (1998) medals at the Olympics.
“Jennifer didn’t make any mistakes, while I did,” Traa said. “She deserves it because she’s a fighter.”
Staff writer Scott Willoughby can be reached at 303-820-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com.
