Arya News - In his third Olympics, Ferreira claims gold in his signature event.
LIVIGNO, Italy — At long last, Alex Ferreira is a gold medalist.
The 31-year old halfpipe specialist finally completed his Olympic set Friday night, adding a long-coveted gold to the silver and bronze he won in 2022 and 2018.
He did it by stomping his third and final run, waving his right pole around like a lasso at the bottom of the pipe and moving into first place with a score of 93.75.
From there, Ferreira had to survive three more challengers. Estonia’s 19-year old Henry Sildaru gave it a good run but came up .75 points short according to the judges.
American Nick Goepper, who stood in third place, almost landed a monster run with a final flourish that might have won gold but misjudged the final trick and landed with his back on the side of the halfpipe - a scary and painful fall. But thankfully, after about two minutes, managed to get up and walk away.
The last chance to unseat Ferreira was Canada’s Brendan Mackay, who seemed on his way to rocketing into first place in the second round with a massive second run - but lost it trying to alley-oop his final trick, sitting down on landing.
Mackay’s final run was good but only good enough to get him the bronze.
Birk Irving was fifth and Hunter Hess ninth for Team USA.
Goepper, three-time medalist (two silver, one bronze) in slopestyle before becoming a halfpipe specialist, was trying to become the first male freeskier to medal in both disciplines but came up just short.