ZHANGJIAKOU, China — In a Pyeongchang podium shuffle, New Zealand’s Nico Porteous dethroned two-time gold medalist David Wise on Saturday in the Olympic ski halfpipe final to upgrade a 2018 bronze medal for his first gold. Wise medaled for his third consecutive Games with silver, and Pyeongchang silver medalist Alex Ferreira took bronze to give the United States two medals for the second time since freeski halfpipe made its Olympic debut.
Since 2014, the United States has won five of the nine men's freeski halfpipe medals.
"Americans are good at the rebel sports," Wise said. "I would call halfpipe a rebel sport. It's a sport where we don't really like to listen to the rules, we don't really like to do things the way you tell us we should do that. We like to go out there and put our own signature on it, our own style, do it exactly the way we think it should be done, and that gets judged well in this sport because it's cool to look unique."
