Voisin takes fourth
Maggie Voisin (Photo courtesy Brian Schott)
Maggie Voisin skis fresh powder at Whitefish Mountain Resort in December. (Photo courtesy Brian Schott)
Maggie Voisin, of the United States, jumps during the women's slopestyle finals at Phoenix Snow Park at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Maggie Voisin, of the United States, gives the thumbs up after her run during the women's slopestyle finals at Phoenix Snow Park at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Whitefish freeskier Maggie Voisin just missed the podium with a close fourth place finish in women’s slopestyle at this year’s Olympic Games.
A scored of 81.20 in her final run — after falling on her first two attempts — was enough for third place and a possible bronze medal until British skier Isabel Atkin snuck by to finish third overall.
On Saturday, Voisin posted to Facebook, saying she had “no regrets.”
“I am so incredibly honored to have been amongst all the talented ladies yesterday!” she wrote. “I hung on the best I could and was able to walk away with fourth here in PyeongChang! So today I cheers to all the ladies out there yesterday because we all put our hearts into it! And a huge cheers to the future because it’s going to be a fun one!”
Voisin finished 12th in preliminary competition earlier in the day, securing the last qualifying spot for the finals. Devin Logan, the other American competing in the finals, finished sixth in the qualifying rounds and 10th overall.
Sarah Hoefflin and Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland took first and second in the competition.
Slopestyle competitions test a skier’s ability to handle a variety of terrain by executing freestyle maneuvers down a course.
Voisin, 19, was born and raised in Whitefish, and started skiing when she was 3. She and her twin brother Tucker share the love of skiing with her parents Kristen and M. Truby, and siblings Michael and Kelsey.
Prior to the Olympics, Voisin had just earned a gold medal win at the 2018 XGames in Aspen — the first American woman to ever win XGames gold.
This is Voisin’s second trip to the Olympics. She qualified for the Sochi Games as the youngest member of the 2014 U.S. Olympic Team, but broke her ankle during a training run and was unable to compete.
Voisin joined the Whitefish Mountain Resort freestyle team when she was 10 and won the USASA national slopestyle championship in her age group when she was 12.
At age 14, she won the WSI/AFP World Championships in Whistler, moved to Park City to train with the Axis Freeride team, was invited to compete in the XGames, was named “Slopestyle Rookie of the Year” by ESPN, and joined U.S. Freeskiing Slopestyle Team as the youngest skier.
Each slopestyle course is filled with features including rails, jibs, hips and a variety of jumps allowing riders to combine big air and technical tricks into one run. Competitors are scored in an overall impression judging format on amplitude, execution, difficulty of line, landing and use of the course.