Epic tricks lift US freestyle skiers to 1-2 Olympic finish

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Shred, white and flew.

Innovative American freestyle skiers Alex Hall and Nick Goepper landed jaw-dropping tricks on the Secret Garden slopestyle course and won the gold and silver medals at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday.

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Hall clinched the gold on the first of three runs when he defied gravity with a trick called "right double 10 pretzel one." He spun 900 degrees one way and, as G-forces took over, stopped the spin in midair and spun 180 degrees the other way. He stuck the landing and skied in backward to the finish, earning a score of 90.01.

Goepper was so impressive on his second run that he clinched the silver with a score of 86.48.

American men have won six of nine medals since slopestyle made its Olympic debut in 2014. Goepper added to his silver from the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and bronze from the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

From left silver medal winner United State's Nick Goepper, gold medal winner United States' Alexander Hall and bronze medal winner Sweden's Jesper Tjader celebrate afrter the men's slopestyle finals at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China.  (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Also up in the mountains, Mikaela Shiffrin set the fastest time in a downhill training session ahead of the Alpine combined, which will be held Thursday. That will be the superstar skier’s fifth event and she’s still looking for her first medal.

Those were far better results than down in the city, where the U.S. men’s hockey team was knocked out in the semifinals of the Olympic tournament when it blew a lead in the last minute of regulation and was shut out in a shootout, losing 3-2 to