BONGPYEONG, South Korea — America’s halfpipe snowboarding women kept a lid on their A-game runs on Monday, throwing just enough tricks to qualify for Tuesday’s Olympic final.
The world’s top female pipe rider, Chloe Kim, easily qualified with a tempered pair of runs that earned her the highest scores of the day and the top qualifying position, which allows her to drop last during the best-of-three contest on Tuesday. Maddie Mastro spun two solid runs to qualify fourth. Five-time Olympian Kelly Clark worked past a less-than-stellar first run with a better second run to qualify 11th. And Steamboat Springs Arielle Gold, who fell on her first run, just made the 12-rider cut with a second run that dialed back her biggest tricks.
“Kind of watching all the runs that have been going on and it just felt like that was a better option. Just kind of balancing between what I feel confident landing,” said the 21-year-old, who hopes the PyeongChang Olympics turn out better than her experience four years ago in Russia, where that lingers today. “Just trying to make smart decisions.”
The Americans weighed the 24-rider competition and threw down runs that were enough to get them into Tuesday’s finals. They certainly didn’t show their best runs. All four Americans have 1080s, one of the most technical tricks in the women’s pipe. With Kim — America’s best hope for gold — boasting back-to-back 1080s and Clark, Mastro and Gold all planning to throw the trick, there’s high hope that at least one other American woman can join Kim on the podium.
The U.S. was the only team to advance all its riders into the 12-athlete finals. China advanced two of its top snowboarders, as did France and Japan.
