Olympics 2018: David Wise wins 2nd freestyle halfpipe gold

Freestyle halfpipe has been in the Winter Olympics just twice, and both events have seen the same winner. David Wise of the United States captured his second gold medal with an inspired third run in the final on Thursday morning at Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Wise, who fell in each of his first two runs in the final, executed all four maneuvers successfully on his final try and vaulted into the lead with a score of 97.20.

Wise was joined on the podium by fellow American Alex Ferreira, who took the silver medal with a score of 96.40, improving steadily in each of his three finals runs. Nico Porteous of New Zealand captured the bronze with a score of 94.80.

With four Americans in the finals, and the three top runs in qualifying, it was thought that the United States might win all three medals in this event.

“The conditions are not only optimal for pipe skiing in general, the conditions are optimal for American pipe skiers because all four of us like to go big,” 2014 Olympic gold medalist Wise told ESPN. “When you go big, you tend to run out of pipe, but this one is nice and long, so we’re all going to get five hits, we’re all going to be able to do the tricks we want to do, and we’ll see how the cards fall.”

Aaron Blunck, who was first after qualifying, finished in seventh place in the final, and Torin Yater-Wallace finished ninth, including a fall in his final run.

“Some people might be, ‘Yeah, all right let’s go one, two, three on the podium,’” Yater-Wallace told the Associated Press this week. “It makes you start thinking too much about that kind of stuff.”