Olympics-Freestyle skiing-Norway's Ruud wins Big Air gold as Hall falters

By Julien Pretot and Krystal Hu

BEIJING (Reuters) -Norway's Birk Ruud claimed the first men's freeski Big Air Olympic gold medal with a dominant display as his main rival, American Alex Hall, faltered at the Beijing Games on Wednesday.

Having landed a switch left triple 1980 mute -- five and a half rotations -- in the first run, the 21-year-old scored a total of 187.75 and was assured of the title before the third and final jump, which he made holding the Norwegian flag.

Colby Stevenson (183.00) was second for the United States, who were still waiting for their first gold of the Games on the fifth day of competition.

They have not waited that long for their first title since they clinched a maiden gold at the Winter Olympics after seven days at the 1988 Games in Calgary.

Sweden's Henrik Harlaut (181.00) took the bronze medal with his last jump, his "boom boom boom" celebration breaking the near silence at the Shougang steel mill in sharp contrast to the fanfare that greeted China's Eileen Gu when she won the women's title on Tuesday.

After Austrian Matej Svancer, the 17-year-old rising star of freeski, failed to make it to the final, Wednesday's event was widely predicted to be a duel between Ruud and Hall.

Hall, who won the Winter X Games last month with a double cork 2160 -- a whopping six full rotations -- failed to grab properly on his switch left double 1800 in the first run.

Ruud, a cliff diving enthusiast and 2016 Youth Games gold medallist, managed a switch left triple 1980 mute in the first run to get 95.75.

"Thank you Norway, everybody. This has been a goal since I was at the NTG U (school) when I was 13, and now we're here," he said.

UNDER PRESSURE

With the two best runs taken into account for the final