It was a final littered with falls. The star of the qualifiers, Spain’s Queralt Castellet, didn’t even make it to the finals. She went down during practice and was pulled out of the pipe on a sled.
When the finals began it seemed like the sitting and slamming only intensified. Hannah Teter was the lone favorite to survive in the first run and her safe, conservative run seemed to surprise the judges into giving her a 42.4. Nerves?
In the second run Torah Bright turned it on, landed her run (watch the video here), and no one could catch her. Gretchen Bleiler went down on her second run as did the lone Canadian Mercedes Nicholl. Kelly Clark threw down a big run with a slight sketch or two and was given a 42.2 by the judges. It was only good enough for bronze.
We’re sure when we’re all given time to review the video some of the scoring will appear even stranger, but the one thing that cannot be taken away was Torah Bright’s performance under pressure. Her run was exactly what was required and she stomped it.
Women’s Olympic HP Results:
1. Torah Bright 45
2. Hannah Teter 42.4
3. Kelly Clark 42.2
4. Jaiyu Liu 39.3
5. Sophie Rodriguez 34.4
6. Mercedes Nicoll 34.3
7. Zhifeng Sun 33
8. Holly Crawford 30.3
9. Ursina Haller 27.9
10. Elena Hight 24.6
11. Gretchen Bleiler 14.7
12. Queralt Castellet DNS
For the complete results, click here. Click here for video.
