After dropping the top score in the men’s halfpipe final, Alex Ferreira was sweating it out at the finish.
The American vaulted himself atop the leaderboard with a score of 93.75 in his final run, guaranteed at least bronze, but could only sit idly as teammate Nick Goepper and Canadian Brendan MacKay took their last licks.
Goepper crashed on his final trick in what looked to be a brutal landing at the top of the pipe, walking off under his own power after being attended to by medics..
Then, MacKay was unable to wrest away the gold from the Colorado native.
That left Ferreira, 31, to be crowned the oldest men’s halfpipe gold medalist in the event’s history.
After MacKay’s score of 91.00 was revealed, he pumped his fist to the crowd and bent down to the snow in disbelief as the crowd went wild for him after the brief wait.
Estonia’s Henry Sildaru earned the silver medal (93.00), and MacKay of Canada rounded out the podium.
MacKay’s final run bumped Goepper out of medal contention. Other American skiers, Birk Irving and Hunter Hess, finished in fifth and 10th, respectively.
Coming into Milan, Ferreira felt like he was destined for gold.
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“It’s really the best that I’ve ever felt going into a Games before,” he told Olympics.com. “Physically, I’m in the best shape of my life. Emotionally, I’m happy. Mentally, I’m in a great place. Spiritually, all good. So I really think that the third time is the charm here.”
“I wholeheartedly believe that I will win gold and it will be the best, most glorious moment of my life. I will cry. Even thinking about it right now is kind of making me tear up,” he added.
Ferreira now has all the medals of the men’s freeski halfpipe.
He took home the silver in his Olympic debut in PyeongChang in 2018 before winning the bronze in Beijing in 2022.
