US freestyle skier Nick Goepper flies from the back of the pack to the podium
BONGPYEONG, South Korea - With a dazzling final run, American skier Nick Goepper vaulted from the back of the pack to win a silver medal Sunday in the men's slopestyle event.
Fellow American Gus Kenworthy, one of Team USA's most prominent and outspoken gay athletes, was also in the final and finished 12th.
Goepper, a medalist in Sochi, becomes the first person to win medals in this event multiple times.
The outcome comes at a significant time for both U.S. athletes, whose lives have been transformed over the last four years. Goepper battled depression in the aftermath of Sochi and at one point contemplated suicide. Since those Olympics, Kenworthy has come out as gay, taking a place alongside figure skater Adam Rippon as a trailblazer for LGBT athletes.
"I've made it very clear who I am," Kenworthy said. "There isn't a ton of [LGBT] representation at the games. But it's also just me and being myself, so it's almost easier than ever to be here and competing, to feel free and liberated."
In the finals, in which each skier was ranked by his highest score over three runs, both Kenworthy and Goepper started slowly. After two runs, Kenworthy was 11th of 12 skiers; Goepper was eighth.
On his last run, and his last chance, Kenworthy landed awkwardly on a jump and lost the momentum he needed for one last trick. His medal chances were over.
But Goepper came up big, scoring a 93.6.
Norway's Oystein Braaten won the gold. Canada's Alex Beaulieu-Marchand won bronze.
The entire event was packed into one day, with 30 skiers taking two runs each during qualifying; the owners of the 12 best scores advanced. Four Americans were in the starting field, but two - Alex Hall and McRae Williams - failed to advance to the final rounds.
That result guaranteed that Americans wouldn't sweep the podium as they had four years earlier, when ski slopestyle debuted as an Olympic sport. Then, Kenworthy and Goepper were both medalists, along with gold winner Joss Christensen, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament last year and didn't qualify for these Games.
Since Sochi, it is Kenworthy whose life has most been transformed. Then, he was a little-known athlete in an infant sport. Now, though Kenworthy is one of the U.S.'s highest-profile Olympians, not just because of his medal, but because of his outspoken status as one of the country's two openly gay male Winter Olympians. When competing in Russia, Kenworthy hadn't yet said anything about his sexuality, but that changed in October 2015, when he wrote on Twitter, "I am gay."
The moment came with great anxiety for him. He worried that he might be judged differently by people in the sport and by those in his hometown. Instead, he felt an outpouring of support - and also a surge of corporate interest. He arrived in Pyeongchang with a full backing of sponsors, including Samsung and Visa, as well as a celebrity status. Hours before his event began Sunday, pop star Britney Spears wished him good luck on Twitter.
"I'm gonna go that extra mile for you, Britney," Kenworthy wrote back.
He competed despite a troubled week of preparation. He broke his thumb in training last Thursday. He also fell, developing a blood-filled lump on his hip that needed to be drained. Kenworthy documented both injuries on his social media accounts, all while making reference to his objections with the LGBT views of Vice President Mike Pence.
"Broke my thumb yesterday in practice," he wrote. "It won't stop me from competing (obvi) but it does prevent me from shaking Pence's hand so ... Silver linings!"