LIVIGNO, Italy — U.S. freeskier Nick Goepper said Saturday that he suffered only a sprained knee and a bone bruise after a scary fall in the halfpipe finals at the Winter Olympics.
In a social media post, the 31-year-old Goepper said “I got super lucky. God is watching over, that’s for sure.”
Goepper went flying above the deck of the halfpipe and came down on his back in his last run during Friday night’s final before bouncing to the bottom. He stood up and walked gingerly to the end of the pipe, holding his back.
“I don’t think I’ve ever gone for gold as hard in my life,” he said. “I wanted nothing less than to come home with a gold medal. I wanted to put it all on the line.”
He said he was looking to do an “NBD” — never been done — which in his case involved throwing a trick at the bottom with 1260 degrees of spin, which was a full revolution more than the trick he’d landed in his first two runs.
Goepper came out of retirement and moved from slopestyle to halfpipe in hopes of winning his first Olympic gold medal this year. He already has two Olympic silver medals and a bronze.
He was in third place when he dropped in for his final run. His final trick was his final gambit to win the gold.
Shortly after his wreck, Canada’s Brendan Mackay landed a strong run to push Goepper off the podium and into fourth place.
“I don’t regret it,” Goepper said. “Hopefully, that can inspire some of you. Sometimes it’s gold and sometimes it’s bounce. Last night, I bounced, 22 feet to the ground. But I’m going to get back up and keep trying.”
Goepper was not the only freeskier to go down hard in the halfpipe.
Top-ranked Finley Melville Ives of New Zealand had a scary crash in qualifying earlier in the day. Team officials said he briefly fell unconscious, but was stable after he was taken off in a stretcher.
Team Canada said two-time Olympic medalist Cassie Sharpe will not be able to participate in the women’s freeski halfpipe final after her own hard fall.
Sharpe had earned a spot in the final with a good score during Thursday’s qualifying before she crashed on a run, slamming hard on her left side. She was briefly knocked out and needed to be stretchered off.
Her team said Saturday that “after a brief precautionary” hospital stay she had been released, but that she had not been cleared by doctors to get back on her skis.
