Maddie Bowman completes U.S. domination in Olympic extreme sports with gold medal in halfpipe skiing
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia – The United States' dominance at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park ended with a flourish Thursday night as Maddie Bowman captured the gold medal in women's halfpipe skiing, the final freestyle event featuring a U.S. athlete.
Team USA won 12 medals among snowboarding and freestyle skiing, including six golds. Only Canada, with nine medals, has come close to the U.S. total.
[Photos: Women's halfpipe freestyle skiing]
Bowman, a 20-year-old from Salt Lake City, scored a 85.8 on her first run then topped it with an 89 on her second.
"I don't think it's possible to put this into words," Bowman said. "I am so happy. It's crazy."
Bowman's grandmother Lorna Perpall was among the friends and family cheering her on.
Gold medal winner Maddie Bowman's grandma, Lorna Perpall, is the most awesome grandma at the Sochi Games. pic.twitter.com/wrxFEoABVb
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 20, 2014
The other three U.S. entrants in the 12-woman finals – Brita Sigourney, Annalisa Drew and Angeli Vanlaanen – all crashed on at least one of their runs and did not medal.
France's Marie Martinod won silver with an 85.4. Japan's Ayana Onozuka took the bronze.
[Photos: Team USA freestyle skier Maddie Bowman]
Bowman, the favorite entering the competition, and Sigourney were among the few women capable of hitting a 900-degree-spinning jump off the much-maligned pipe, which hopefully will be put out of its mercy after two weeks of doing everything it could to limit the quality of runs.
Their advantage was significant, and it was likely a matter of who would throw down the cleanest run. That was Bowman.
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