BEIJING (AP) 鈥� Shred, white and flew.
Innovative American freestyle skiers Alex Hall and Nick Goepper landed jaw-dropping tricks on the Secret Garden slopestyle course and won the gold and silver medals at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday.
Hall when he defied gravity with a trick called 鈥渞ight double 10 pretzel one.鈥� He spun 900 degrees one way and, as G-forces took over, stopped the spin in midair and spun 180 degrees the other way. He stuck the landing and skied in backward to the finish, earning a score of 90.01.
Goepper was so impressive on his second run that he clinched the silver with a score of 86.48.
American men have won six of nine medals since slopestyle made its Olympic debut in 2014. Goepper added to his silver from the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and bronze from the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Also up in the mountains, Mikaela Shiffrin set the fastest time in a downhill training session ahead of the Alpine combined, which will be held Thursday. That will be the superstar skier鈥檚 fifth event and she鈥檚 still looking for her first medal.
Those were far better results than down in the city, where the U.S. men鈥檚 hockey team was knocked out in the semifinals of the Olympic tournament when it blew a lead in the last minute of regulation and was shut out in a shootout, losing 3-2 to Slovakia.
On the slopestyle course, Hall and Goepper were rewarded by the judges for their epic creativity. Hall鈥檚 gold medal was the eighth for the United States in Beijing.
鈥淚鈥檓 just stoked I did it, my best slopestyle ever 鈥� and for the world to see that,鈥� said Hall, who was born in Alaska, grew up in Switzerland and lives in Utah.
鈥淲ith where our sport鈥檚 been going, a lot of what we do, we call 鈥榮pin to win,鈥� and, so, everyone is spinning as much as they can,鈥� Hall said. 鈥淭o take a new approach and do a trick that has almost no rotation but is still really, really hard 鈥� it was really, really sweet.鈥�
Goepper鈥檚 big trick was a new approach at a double-cork 1440.
鈥淪ometimes big contests are just sort of business as usual and you have to just slog together a run,鈥� Goepper said. 鈥淭his, it felt good to do it how we wanted to do it.鈥�
The Secret Garden course has replicas of portions of the Great Wall carved out of artificial snow, and Goepper skied on top of a pagoda-shaped guard house known as The Shred Shed that doubles as a rail section up top.
鈥淚 think I had to separate myself in some other way,鈥� Goepper said. 鈥淎nd I also thought jumping on top of that house would be really cool.鈥�
SHIFFRIN SHINES 鈥� IN PRACTICE
The Beijing Olympics haven鈥檛 gone Mikaela Shiffrin鈥檚 way. She skied out of the two events she has gold medals in, the giant slalom and slalom, and didn鈥檛 come close to winning a medal in her next two races.
Maybe that will change in Thursday鈥檚 Alpine combined. Shiffrin is the reigning world champion in combined and also won the silver medal in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
of Switzerland. The combined adds the times from one downhill run and one slalom run.
HOCKEY KNOCKOUT
The U.S. men鈥檚 hockey team was the top seed in the knockout round and was looking for a deep run that would culminate in winning its first Olympic gold medal since the 鈥淢iracle on Ice鈥� team in 1980.
It鈥檚 not going to happen. in a shootout in the semifinals.
鈥淚鈥檓 just sad it鈥檚 over,鈥� U.S. captain Andy Miele said. 鈥淥ur team battled hard. Sometimes those bounces happen in hockey. Unfortunate it was on our side.鈥�
Marek Hrivik of Slovakia knocked a loose puck past goalie Strauss Mann to tie the game 2-2 with 43.7 seconds left in regulation. Peter Cehlarik scored the game winner in the shootout, while the Americans went 0 for 5 against Patrik Rybar.
Miele was the final American player denied by Rybar. He wiped away tears after the loss.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a tough situation with the game riding on you,鈥� Miele said. 鈥淚 wanted to score, I didn鈥檛 and it stinks. I don鈥檛 know what else to say.鈥�
MEN鈥橲 SLALOM
on the strength of a fast second run. He moved up from sixth after the first leg to beat Johannes Strolz of Austria, who led after the first run, by 0.61 seconds. World champion Sebastian Foss-Solevaag of Norway took the bronze.
WOMEN鈥橲 BIATHLON RELAY
in the four-woman biathlon. It was the third medal of the Beijing Games for Oeberg, who won silver in the sprint and pursuit races in her Olympic debut.
CROSS-COUNTRY
Norwegian skier Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo completed a second straight Olympic cross-country sprint double and Victoria Carl of Germany barely edged Swedish rival Jonna Sundling at the line in the women鈥檚 race.
MEN鈥橲 AERIALS
after missing the podium in Sochi and Pyeongchang. Qi was the only competitor to cleanly land a quintuple-twisting triple back flip in the medal round. Defending champion Oleksandr Abramenko of Ukraine won silver and Ilia Burov of the Russian team took bronze.
SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING
in the 1,500-meter short track speedskating race while Arianna Fontana of Italy took silver by two-thousandths of a second over Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands. Fontana is the most-decorated short track skater in history with 11 Olympic medals, including three in Beijing.
The Canadian team of Charles Hamelin, Steven Dubois, Jordan Pierre-Gilles and Pascal Dion won the 5,000-meter relay, the country鈥檚 eighth gold medal in the 45-lap race.
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Bernie Wilson, The Associated Press
