American Devin Logan won the silver in slopestyle skiing’s Olympic debut Tuesday, as Canada added to its Sochi medal haul.
Canadian favorite Dara Howell took the gold with a first run score of 94.20 points. Kim Lamarre, another Canadian, took bronze.
Howell dedicated the win to her idol Sarah Burke, who died in 2012 at age 29 following an accident while training on the halfpipe.
"I said the other day that I really hope a Canadian brings home a gold medal and it will be for Sarah," Howell said. "This medal is definitely for Sarah. She pushed the sport."
Howell's triumph was tempered by a series of frightening crashes, including one by teammate Yuki Tsubota. That ended with Tsubota being carried off the mountain on a stretcher with a possible fractured jaw. Russia's Anna Mirtova wiped out during both of her final runs and said she's heading for knee surgery.
In slopestyle skiing athletes perform tricks across rails, quarter-pipes and during jumps as they make their way downhill.
Logan, 20 of West Dover, Vt., surged into second place with a first run score of 85.40 points at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. The 2012 Winter X Games slopestyle silver medalist wiped out during her second run. She's set to compete in halfpipe on Feb. 20.
America's top contender in Sochi, Maggie Voisin, had bowed out from competition after hurting herself in training. But two other Americans made the finals. Keri Herman finished in 10th place; Julia Krass came in 11th.
U.S. & World
With Canada taking the gold and bronze, the country has notched seven medals in four days of snowboarding and freestyle skiing, including three events in which they took two of the three spots on the podium.
"We're over the moon right now," said Peter Judge, CEO of the Canadian Freestyle Skiing Association. "Our target was to get six total — and we still have a few events left."
Logan conceded that the Canadians are more perfect than most at the moment. While the U.S. grabbed gold in both men's and women's slopestyle snowboarding over the weekend, Canada has dominated everything else. Slopestyle snowboarder Mark McMorris earned bronze and Canada went 1-2 in both men's and women's moguls.
"They're really good as you can see," Logan said. "They're definitely giving us a run for the money. It helps us progress our sport. It's nice having a little bit of a rivalry trying to beat them or one up them."
Another Canadian considered a favorite at the Sochi Games, Kaya Turski, failed to advance past Tuesday's qualification round after crashing in both runs. Turski suffered a dislocated shoulder in the first, NBCOlympics.com reported.
