BEIJING — The pristine white snow at Genting Snow Park is more than just Alex Hall's office for the day. To the two-time Olympic freeskier, it's a sun-soaked, freezing-cold, blank canvas on which to paint his next picture.
Where elite athletes would generally rely on preset routines long before arriving at an event, slopestyle riders have perfected the art of adaptation. No regulation halfpipes or jump dimensions here. Each course at each contest is new, and when it came to the course at Genting Snow Park, each athlete carved a different work of art.
Wednesday. on the Olympic course's final day of competition, Hall's masterpiece came with a gold filter, as he won his first Olympic gold medal with a first-run score of 90.01. Americans went first-and-second on the podium with Nick Goepper taking his second second consecutive Olympic silver medal.
