The all-or-nothing trick Goepper threw down said a lot about his goals and the sport itself. He came out of retirement after the last Olympics to move from slopestyle to the halfpipe. He already has two Olympic silver medals and a bronze, and clearly wasn't in the contest for second or third again.
He was in third place when he dropped in for his final run. His final trick — an attempt to add a full extra rotation to the same jumps he had landed earlier to close his runs — was his final gambit to win the gold.
Shortly after his wreck, Canada's Brendan Mackay landed a strong run to push Goepper off the podium and into fourth place.
“He is just absolutely unbelievable,” said Goepper's teammate, gold medalist Alex Ferreira. “He is a great competitor and great teammate and friend, and for him to go for it in that moment took serious guts. He is a real man.”
Goepper was not the only freeskier to go down hard in the halfpipe.
Top-ranked Finley Melville Ives of New Zealand suffered a scary crash in qualifying earlier in the day. Team officials said he briefly fell unconscious, but was stable after he was taken off in a stretcher.
Sharpe won't make women's halfpipe final after crash in qualifying
Team Canada said two-time Olympic medalist Cassie Sharpe will not be able to participate in the women’s freeski halfpipe final on Saturday two days after she suffered a hard fall.
Sharpe had earned a spot in the final with a good score during Thursday’s qualifying before she crashed on a run, slamming hard on her left side. She was briefly knocked out and needed to be stretchered off.
Her team said Saturday that “after a brief precautionary” hospital stay she had been released, but that she had not been cleared by doctors to get back on her skis.
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics