Ski and Snowboard Club Vail mogul skiers qualify for Olympic final
Defending silver medalist Jaelin Kauf will have one more chance to qualify for the finals Wednesday
Lindsey Wasson/AP photo
All three former Ski and Snowboard Club Vail mogul skiers on Tuesday advanced out of the first of two individual mogul qualifiers to Wednesday’s Olympic finals.
Liz Lemley led the way, posting the second-best score in the women’s individual qualifier. Defending Olympic champion Jakara Anthony posted an 81.65 to top the 30-athlete field. Lemley’s score was 80.95, just ahead of American teammate Olivia Giaccio (80.74).
“I think it’s the best one I’ve had in my career ever,” said Lemley, who had the highest turn score in the field. Lemley told the media she didn’t feel too nervous in her Olympic debut.
“It’s a lot less pressure here to be honest. The qualification period was a lot of nerves and a lot of anxiety,” the double Youth Olympics gold medalist said. “And now here I can just relax and enjoy.”
Fellow Ski and Snowboard Club Vail alumna Tess Johnson (73.79) finished ninth as the top-10 automatically advanced to Wednesday’s final. The two-time Olympian, who finished 12th in Pyeongchang eight years ago, said she was satisfied with the effort.
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“I have a lot more though,” the 25-year-old added. “So, I’m really looking forward to putting that down tomorrow.”
Johnson said she’s taking confidence from finishing third in the World Cup test event last winter.
“I mean, this course is incredible and to put down a result on it once before gives me all the confidence I need,” she continued. The Vail skier said the best part of her run was her signature bottom air.
“That trick felt good,” Johnson continued. “I had a couple mistakes before that jump so I’m really pleased with how I executed that jump. And it’s just my favorite trick in the world.”
Jaelin Kauf, who earned a silver medal in Beijing four years ago and swept all three World Cup crystal globes last season, posted the fastest run of the day but lost control after her first jump and wound up 27th. Athletes will get a second opportunity to make the 20-person finals in round 2 of qualifications on Wednesday morning.
“I’m going to have to ski another qualification run, unfortunately, to start the day tomorrow. But it’ll give me another chance to get on there,” Kauf told the media. “Just going to focus on putting a run through. Obviously (I) tried to do that today and it didn’t work out. (I’ll) just put down some solid runs and try and focus on skiing.”
Johnson, who is second in the World Cup crystal globe chase so far this year, expressed faith in her teammate, who was briefly at SSCV before heading to Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.
“She’s going to crush it tomorrow. No worries about that,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of nerves today. I was feeling them. That’s why I didn’t put my best run down. I’m so amazed by all the athletes that are able to put their best stuff down when the pressure is the highest, but that’s why we do it, and I’m really going to embrace that pressure tomorrow.”
The 2018 gold medal winner Perrine Laffont finished fourth.
“It wasn’t easy, I did some mistakes, so that means that I can fix my run and do better,” the Frenchwoman told Rueters.
Breckenridge’s Dylan Walczyk also moved into Wednesday’s finals, placing seventh in the men’s competition. The 32-year-old SSCV alumnus, who finished 16th at his first Olympics in 2022, was the second American, right behind fifth-place qualifier Nick Page. The other two U.S. athletes, Charlie Mickel and Landon Wendler, finished 11th and 12th, respectively, and will have to fight their way into the final via the second round of qualifications.
“All around, it was a solid run, it just wasn’t quite my best relaxed skiing,” said Mickel, a Durango native. “I’m glad I made it down clean and can just build from here.”
Japan’s Ikuma Horishima (85.42), the 2022 bronze medalist, finished first as two Canadians, Julien Viel (79.56) and Mikael Kingsbury (79.11) were second and third, respectively. Kingsbury has won a record 100 World Cup events as well as 13 overall mogul globes. A nine-time world champion, Kingsbury won gold in Pyeongchang and has mogul silver medals from Sochi and Beijing.
The individual moguls final for both men and women will consist of the 10 qualifiers from Tuesday plus 10 more from qualification 2. The top-8 from that group of 20 advance to the super final. The women’s moguls qualification 2 begins at 3 a.m. MST on Wednesday, with the finals following at 6:15 a.m. The men’s qualification 2 and finals are set for Thursday. The dual moguls will be contested for the first time in Olympic history on Feb. 14.
