Bardonecchia, Italy – For Aspen’s golden girl of snowboarding, the payoff came in silver.
Gretchen Bleiler, the two-time Winter X Games gold medalist in women’s halfpipe from Aspen/Snowmass Village, fulfilled her childhood dreams Monday with a silver-medal performance behind U.S. teammate Hannah Teter, 19, of Belmont, Vt., in Olympic halfpipe competition. Bleiler’s score of 43.4 out of a possible 50 points was topped only by Teter’s 46.4 as Americans dominated the discipline for the second consecutive day. Kjersti Buaas of Norway finished third at 42.0.
“It was an absolutely unbelievable day today. The Olympics and medaling at the Olympics has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl,” said Bleiler, 24, who failed to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team in 2002 after losing a triple tiebreaker to her friend Tricia Byrnes. “I worked so hard to get where I am today. It hasn’t been easy, not one day of it. So many ups and so many downs. But it’s just an unbelievable feeling getting through all of that and accomplishing a dream and a goal.”
American snowboarders continued to flex their collective muscle in the Olympic halfpipe Monday as 2002 gold medalist Kelly Clark of Mount Snow, Vt., placed just off the podium for the second 1-2-4 U.S. snowboarding finish in as many days. Americans Shaun White and Danny Kass began the medal run Sunday, claiming gold and silver, respectively, while teammate Mason Aguirre placed fourth. Overall, U.S. riders have won 10 of a possible 18 medals in the history of Olympic halfpipe.
The U.S. women’s team was the final hope for a repeat performance of the 2002 medals sweep in Olympic halfpipe competition by snowboarders Ross Powers, JJ Thomas and Kass. After one run in the women’s finals, a second sweep appeared imminent as Teter, Bleiler and Clark held the top three positions on the scoreboard until Buaas – the fourth-place finisher in ’02 – bumped Clark from the podium.
“I never thought this was possible,” Buaas said. “I was about to drop in (the halfpipe), and they said, ‘You are the last European (with a chance) to split the Americans.’ I thought ‘Oh no, the whole of Europe is depending on me.’ So I just tried to get speed and tired to go big because they just have so many tricks, and I don’t. When I found out I was second (at the time), I didn’t believe it.”
Clark had one final attempt to regain the podium, linking the day’s most impressive run with a series of massive aerials before falling on an attempted 900-degree spin move near the bottom of the pipe. Bleiler, the next rider to drop in, used a flashy run that included an inverted front- side 540, a “Crippler,” and a clean 900 to move into the silver-medal spot.
“I had the best run of my life up to that point, and even the nine (900-degree spin) was the best one I’d ever done,” Clark said. “I just came up a little bit in the back seat and didn’t land it.”
Still, U.S. Snowboarding halfpipe coach Bud Keene deemed his team’s overall performance a success.
“We set some high goals,” Keene said. “We wanted to sweep everything, and if Kelly had landed on her feet, we would have swept. But our actual stated goals were two medals for men and two medals for women, which is exactly what we got.”
As the top American qualifier heading into the Olympics, Bleiler was among the favorites to win gold, going so far as to forgo defending her halfpipe title at the Winter X Games in her hometown two weeks ago in order to rest for competition in Italy. Teter also skipped the X Games competition to heal a tender knee, but Bleiler faced the more intense scrutiny by media, athletes and others for her decision.
“It was a really hard decision for me to make,” Bleiler said. “But this has been a crazy year. We had five Olympic qualifiers, and they were tough – stressful emotionally, physically, everything. I had every intention of competing (in Aspen), and at the last minute, my body was saying no. So I had to listen to my body, and it was a good decision. It was a hard decision but a good decision for me.”
Bleiler admitted to suffering from a severe case of nerves heading into the Olympic finals. Between the two rounds of competition, she and Teter managed to escape the pressure of competition and the crowd of more than 5,000 spectators by sneaking up the mountain for a free- riding session.
“It was all about the powder shredding, I think,” Teter said of her ability to relax and land the winning run, which included two 540-degree spins, a 900 and a pair of lofty straight airs.
“We got up there and didn’t realize the entire mountain was blocked off,” added Bleiler. “So we cut some ropes. Sorry. But we got some powder. Then we came down, and she got a gold medal and I got a silver medal.”
Staff writer Scott Willoughby can be reached at 303-820-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com.
