I said a long time ago I’d cover some skiing and I realized I never really got around to it… So, here’s some skiing.
There are two things I’d like to fuse together in one post for this skiing segment: the X Games and the Olympics. The two events showcase different kinds of freestyle skiing, but they’re both very cool.
In the Olympics there are several different skiing events, but I’m going to be talking about the aerial event.
The trick that won the USA its only medal in this event is called the Hurricane… And I’ve pretty much never seen anything like it. It’s 5 twists fused with three somersaults and it’s only done by Jeret “Speedy” Peterson.
WordPress doesn’t allow me to embed videos from anywhere besides Google Video or YouTube (ahem… that sucks by the way) so I can’t show the direct video of this trick done right at the Olympics… But I can link to it. And below is a video of the trick but not the landing 🙂
In the Olympics, this trick earned Peterson the highest score for a single trick, a 128.62 out of 147.00. His combined score of 247.21, however, was 1.2 points shy of the gold medalist’s from Belarus, Alexel Grishin. Peterson was satisfied with the silver, however, and his success with such a difficult trick.
As for the Winter X Games, I was a little disappointed to see my favorites Simon Dumont and Tanner Hall (out because of injury) weren’t on the podium like they usually are. Instead, we saw 2 guys from France and one from New Zealand take home the medals this year. Not to say they weren’t well deserved. Below is some footage of Kevin Rolland’s winning run:
Note: It has come to my attention the above video doesn’t work… but if you click on the link it gives you can go watch it on YouTube
| Final | |||||
| RANK | NAME | RUN 1 | RUN 2 | RUN 3 | SCORE* |
 |
Kevin Rolland | 91.00 | 95.00 | 30.00 | 95.00 |
 |
Jossi Wells | 90.33 | 54.00 | 92.00 | 92.00 |
 |
Xavier Bertoni | 87.66 | 87.00 | 90.00 | 90.00 |
| 4 | Simon Dumont | 89.66 | 48.33 | 89.00 | 89.66 |
| 5 | Duncan Adams | 84.00 | 88.33 | 88.00 | 88.33 |
| 6 | Tucker Perkins | 23.66 | 85.00 | 82.00 | 85.00 |
| 7 | Colby West | 19.33 | 81.66 | 35.00 | 81.66 |
| 8 | Peter Olenick | 9.00 | 40.66 | 10.33 | 40.66 |
I’m still looking for footage of Bertoni, because not only did he get a medal this year, but he won the gold last year, pushing Simon and Tanner out of their usual spots.
And I’m still working on writing about the Winter Dew Tour… It’s a little overshadowed this year by the Olympics!
Xtremethings 