BONGPYEONG, South Korea — America’s Olympic slopestyle skiers saw something they liked in snowboarder Red Gerard’s gold-medal run on Sunday.
The quarter-pipe kicker. Gerard was the only finalist to hit the sideways hit on the second jump and judges rewarded that creative approach.
“We are looking at that pretty closely and there are a couple of our guys who want to hit it,” said the U.S. slopestyle coach Skogen Sprang. “Itap different, itap hard and itap progressive. Itap more difficult.”
The quarter-pipe jumps — a pair of steep ramps built into the sides of the second jump’s main kicker that launches skiers and snowboarders a bit sideways — can steal some speed on take-off. That could be a problem for carrying momentum into the third and final jump, where the skiers will spin their biggest trick.
So things have to line up just right. The wind can’t be too strong to slow the skiers even more. The snow has to be fast. If a trick off the quarter-pipe ends up being too slow, skiers will choose the straight jump.
“That feature definitely seems super appealing,” said Utah’s Alex Hall, a first-time Olympian who hit the quarter-pipe jump at last month’s X Games. “Right when I saw the course, that was one of the first things that jumped out at me and I definitely want to try to hit that.”
Quarter-pipe and transition take-offs are recent additions to slopestyle courses, offering athletes options beyond the full-steam-ahead straight jumps. Slopestyle snowboarders and skiers got a taste of the South Korean slopestyle course in Olympic test events in 2016 and those quarter-pipe hits on the second jump were some of the first ever in competition.
The women skiers, who sometimes appreciate a take-off nearer to a jump’s transition when weather prevents them from reaching maximum speed for the hits, are eyeing those quarter-pipe hits.
“It definitely appeals to me. Itap definitely a cool feature to do something new and exciting on,” said Vermontap Caroline Claire. “It gets the wheels turning. I think itap one of the creative options of this course that is going to be really interesting and itap a great opportunity for people to stand out.”
It certainly worked for Gerard. He struggled a bit on his first two runs with that particular hit, but he stuck with it and landed a clean double-cork 1080 off the quarter-pipe jump. If he’d hit the straight jump, he might have been able to squeeze an extra rotation into the trick and carried more speed into the third jump, where he stomped a triple-cork 1440, which was clean, but not the biggest of the contest. Judges seemed to appreciate his creativity.
Olympic judges are adamant on cleanliness. If the hardest trick in the contest included even the slightest hand drag, itap unlikely the athlete will find the podium. So if the quarter-pipe can’t be stomped clean, itap not going to be a part of an athlete’s run.
“Thatap part of our job, to help find that balance where you know whatap difficult enough but is also going to be consistent enough to do flawlessly,” said Sprang. “Itap all about no mistakes.”
Nick Goepper, the thrice golden X Games slopestyle skier who won bronze in his sportap Olympic debut in Sochi in 2014, loves the quarter-pipe hit. If he can make it work with conditions and maintaining speed into the final money booter, he has a plan to make himself stand out on that hit, just like Gerard did.
“I don’t think anyone has hit the quarter-pipe going backward, going switch,” he said. “I’d like to try to that. I’m looking forward to differentiating myself and that quarter-pipe could work well.”
Ski slopestyle women’s qualifying and finals competitions begin on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 10 a.m. in South Korea, which is 6 p.m. on Friday Feb. 16 in Colorado. Men’s qualifying and finals competitions begin Sunday, Feb. 18 at 10 a.m. in South Korea, which is 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 17 in Colorado.
