ZHANGJIAKOU, China — The Instagram biography of Alex Hall lists his location as, simply, “Modern Art Museum,” which is fitting because the U.S. freestyle skier turned the slopestyle course here into a flipping, twisting, soaring solo installation on Wednesday morning.
“He really just stays true to what he thinks is cool,” U.S. teammate Colby Stevenson gushed after Hall’s 90.01-point first run in the final held up for the gold medal. “He just thinks outside the box. He’s not afraid to do something that nobody ever’s done, just because he thinks he can.”
The picturesque setting at Genting Snow Park provided the perfect stage for such artistry, with its challenging sections of rails, ramps and pipes earning rave reviews from Winter Olympians—not to mention the “shred shed” built to mimic a Great Wall watch tower. But while slopestylists cite a “spin-to-win” culture that has taken over their sport in recent years, one that prioritizes dizzying rotations above all else, it was Hall’s avant-garde approach that stood out.
