BEIJING – American Colby Stevenson took home a surprise silver medal in the big air men’s freeskiing final, putting down two monster runs after crashing on his first attempt.
Stevenson’s impressive switch left 1800 on his last jump – five full rotations in the air – launched him into medal position behind only Norway's Birk Ruud, who ended up with the gold medal. But Stevenson, who posted a combined 183.00 in an event where the two best jumps out of three are scored, still had to survive seven skiers with an opportunity to pass him.
In the end, none of them did as Stevenson – known more for his slopestyle prowess – made his first-ever podium in a significant big air competition.
"I’m totally on a cloud," he said. "It hasn’t quite set in yet. It’s a miracle I ended up on the podium today honestly."
A miracle in more ways than one. In May of 2016, Stevenson was driving late at night in Idaho when he just briefly fell asleep at the wheel. The resulting crash caused numerous injuries including a skull that cracked into 48 pieces and trauma to his brain that caused it to swell within a millimeter of permanent damage.
Just 18 at the time, there was no guarantee he would be able to resume a normal life, much less ski again. He still has visible scars from the accident, but he now views them as part of the journey he had to make to become a champion.
"I've been saying it lately, your character is really defined in those tougher times in your life," Stevenson said. "That’s what defines who you are, so even though maybe you’re dealt bad cards it’s how you’re going to look at that in a positive light and move forward and push toward your dreams. Even though they seem so far out of reach, you just stay true to what you love."
Alexander Hall, who came into the event as the favorite among the American contingent after winning the Winter X Games big air title last month, failed to produce his best Wednesday and finished eighth. After scoring poorly due to a missed ski grab on his first jump, Hall came into his final run needing to do something special.
After deliberating about whether to play it safe and maybe sneaking onto the podium, he decided to attempt a 2160 – the rare, difficult trick he landed at the X Games – but could not quite land cleanly and was eliminated from the competition.
"I was stoked that I just went for it," he said. "I didn’t quite have enough air time and couldn’t quite land it, but hyped just to try and give it all I’ve got. Sometimes things don’t go your way so it’s all good. I think I’d have been more bummed if I played it safe and it didn’t end up panning out."
Still, Hall had some impact on the final result.
Prior to the competition, Stevenson had contemplated trying a trick he'd never brought out before called the "Nose Butter left triple 1620 Japan." In addition to the three vertical flips and 4½ rotations required to land it, the "nose butter" aspect refers to a difficult 180-degree spin before launching off the edge of the ramp.
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"It has a lot more technicality to it because if you don’t go off the nose of your skis you risk catching your edge on the takeoff or getting kind of sketchy," said American Mac Forehand, who finished 11th. "It’s hard to get that nose butter pretty consistent."
Stevenson was unsure whether the jump was big enough for him to execute the trick, but Hall had encouraged him to try it after watching the setup in practice. Though the freestyle skiing community takes pride in bouncing ideas off each other, encouraging each other and valuing the vibes of friendship more than the competition itself, it's especially true with the American team.
"It looked really really good, and I think we all knew he could do it," Hall said. "He’d done similar kind of tricks before so we kind of knew if he got in the right kind of rotation it would pan out."
Stevenson tried it on his first run but did not quite execute it on the landing. That meant he faced a decision for his second run: Attempt the same high-risk trick again or go with something safer to at least give him a chance at a medal?
He figured he came close enough to landing it the first time that it was worth a shot, even if the stakes were all-or-nothing.
"I've been saving it for this event but I’ve been doing it in my head for a long time," Stevenson said. "When I didn’t land it, I was more excited because it was a new trick for me so I was happy to know I could do it and was able to believe in myself a little more for the second time around.
"A lot of people fell out there, but every dog has his day and I just happened to land my tricks clean. Silver medal position? I couldn’t be more grateful and more surprised, honestly. Slopestyle is my favorite event, always will be, but big air is really fun and I’m stoked to finally have a result and put it down when it mattered."
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