Jonny Moseley put his biscuit in the basket, but his virtually unknown U.S. teammate, Travis Mayer, bumped him off the podium in the men’s moguls final Tuesday.
To the delight of 14,327 uproarious fans, Moseley, the 1998 gold medalist, executed his eye-popping midair “dinner roll” maneuver as if he were a kid rolling down a sand dune. He was in third place as Mayer, the afternoon’s final skier, settled into the start gate.
Mayer pumped his fists, playfully stuck out his tongue and blazed down the hill to win a silver medal behind Finland’s Janne Lahtela. Richard Gay of France won the bronze.
“It’s difficult for me to comprehend right now,” said Mayer, 19, who was not even on the U.S. developmental team as of last spring. “Just to make it here, I was on Cloud 9.”
Mayer, a native of Springville, N.Y., who trains in Steamboat Springs, Colo., is a food science major at Cornell University who plans to go into the cider and spring-water business his family has owned for five generations.
“To finish second behind one of greatest moguls skiers ever is the ultimate Olympic experience,” Mayer said of Lahtela, the ’98 silver medalist and ’99 world champion. “It could only have been a little bit better.”
Two other Americans had disappointing days. Jeremy Bloom, the wide receiver who opted to ski rather than play for the University of Colorado, placed ninth. Veteran Evan Dybvig watched the final on crutches after injuring his right knee in a qualifying-run crash.
“What I’ve gone through up to this point is unbelievable–I wouldn’t give it up for anything,” Bloom said. “Although my childhood dream didn’t end the way it did in the dreams, the rest of it was pretty close.”
Mayer clinched a spot on the U.S. Olympic team by winning the all-American Gold Cup in December. Head U.S. freestyle coach Jeff Wintersteen said that while Mayer has been overshadowed by Moseley and Bloom, his performance Tuesday was no shock.
After Mayer marched in the Opening Ceremony, Wintersteen said, he told the coach, “I thought this was going to freak me out, but now I feel invincible.”
The crowd went almost completely silent in anticipation of Moseley’s innovative move. The crowd erupted into jubilation when he arched into a half-flip, then spun twice horizontally and landed upright, traveling downhill. He also did a single-roll version in qualifying.
“I thought I stuck two sweet dinner rolls today,” said Moseley, who will host “Saturday Night Live” on March 2. “Part of my goal was to get out here and do that. To turn up fourth is way beyond my expectations.”
Lahtela, who performed a quad twister and a triple twister spread (leg split), said an injury prevented him from working on a new trick. “The Olympic Games is not a place to try something new,” said Lahtela, whose time of 26.55 seconds topped the field. His total score, including speed, form and jumps, was 27.97 to Mayer’s 27.59.
Moseley, who took two years off before returning to moguls competition, contends that competitors are being too conservative in the event, which was viewed as exotic and edgy when it was added to the Games 10 years ago. Most of the skiers performed tricks that were on display in 1998.
Mayer did a heli-cross, lifting and scissoring the backs of his skis behind his back, and a triple twister. He said Moseley’s shake-and-bake is healthy for the sport, but thinks more daring acrobatics will be slow in coming because 75 percent of a skier’s score is determined by speed and form.
“It’s difficult to throw a trick like that and be totally on pace and have really good crisp skiing,” Mayer said. “Jonny spent the last year of his life trying to figure out how to put that thing in a moguls run, and he wasn’t able to win. I think maybe the reason was that he spent more time practicing the trick than whole package. I think people will eventually be doing those tricks, but they’ll try and phase them in so they can win along the way.”
