Olympic Freestyle Skiing Analysis
Failed landing
SAUZE d'OULX, Italy – After his three talented teammates failed to qualify for the final, Jeret "Speedy" Peterson had the entire weight of American hopes on his shoulders. With the challenging Hurricane (3 flips with 5 twists) in his arsenal, the U.S. team was confident that Speedy had podium potential, if he could successfully land the trick here on Thursday.
The degree of difficulty on the quint-twisting-triple is a huge 4.9, a quarter-point higher than the next most difficult jump performed and almost a whole half-point higher than the best jumps that 10 out of the other 11 finalists performed. The trick is so unbelievably difficult that the 4.9 doesn't do it justice.
Considering that, Peterson had incredible form on his trademark move which he attempted on his second jump. However, he had to twist so quickly during the trick that he had to reach out for the landing at the last second, breaking out of his twists and reaching forward to regain his balance for the landing. As his knees came into his chest, Peterson swiped a hand along the snow, but quickly recovered and threw up both hands in victory.
As the scoreboard flashed a disappointing score of 112.70, Peterson dropped from third to seventh place, and his cheery smile dropped right along with it. The judges had crushed him on his landing scores.
That contrasted with how judges scored the women's event on the previous night, where risky jumps were rewarded with higher scores. Thursday, it was the clean jumps that won high scores for the men.
With two near-perfect jumps, 22-year-old Han Xiaopeng captured China's first ever freestyle skiing gold. His 250.77 two-jump score edged out Belarus' Dmitri Dashinski. The bronze, surprisingly, went to Russian Vladimir Lebedev. Ranked 30th in the world, Lebedev was not on anyone's radar, but after two beautifully executed jumps, we'd better recalibrate our sonar.
However, it's clear that the emerging talent in men's aerials is coming from China. In 2002, there were no Chinese men in the Olympics final. Here, two made the final 12 and one ended the night with a gold medal hanging from his neck. Suddenly, Chinese aerialists are showing the world that their stellar acrobatic skills carry far beyond gymnastic tumbling.
And Xiaopeng is leading the progression.
Xiaopeng finished 24th at the 2002 Games and 29th at the 2003 World Cup championships. He was only 20th at the 2005 world championships, and now an Olympic gold medal. I don't know of a performance enhancing drug that will make you twist cleaner and land more elegantly. If there were, there would be accusations about Xiaopeng's quick rise to the top, but his change is a result of good ol' fashioned hard work.
The Chinese seem to find a way to master most any sport if they put their time, determination and resources into it. I believe this is a good indication of what they have in store for the world in the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.
Americans were hoping that it would be Peterson listening to the beautiful sounds of his national anthem, but you have to be happy for a man who put in endless hours to jump from 24th in the world to number one.
A small smile broke over my face as I saw Xiaopeng dive over the finishing area barrier to embrace his teammates and proudly hoist his country's red and yellow flag.
No Hurricane could blow away his dreams tonight.
Yahoo! Sports' freestyle skiing analyst Nikki Stone won a gold medal in aerials at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games.
Updated on Thursday, Feb 23, 2006 7:10 pm, EST
