Zoe Atkin capped Team GB’s best ever Winter Olympics with a bronze medal in the freeski half-pipe, to go with three golds and a silver won earlier in the Games.
The 23-year-old is the reigning world and X Games champion and had qualified in top spot, but China’s Eileen Gu recovered from a poor qualifying performance to win gold in her best discipline, defending her title from Beijing four years ago.
Atkin was a disappointing ninth in Beijing and withstood the pressure in Livigno Snow Park to seal a first Olympic medal despite a crash on her second run, equalling her older sister Izzy’s slopestyle bronze from Pyeongchang 2018.
China took gold and silver through Gu – the most decorated freeskier in history, who added a gold to her slopestyle and Big Air silver last week – and Li Fanghui, with whom Atkin shared the overall World Cup crystal globe last season.
The final was initially delayed by an hour and a half due to heavy snowfall in Livigno which completely blanketed the half-pipe, with poor visibility making it unsafe for the event to go ahead, before the decision was made to push it back to Sunday.
Fortunately the weather gods smiled on Livigno on the final day of the Games, and 11 athletes – missing Canada’s Cassie Sharpe, who qualified third but crashed hard and withdrew with a concussion – took to the Snow Park in bright sunshine.
Nerves were on show for much of the field, with several of the early starters crashing on their first run and struggling to maintain balance landing on the fresh snow.
Gu produced a huge first trick but landed slightly awkwardly and bailed on the remainder of her run, having lost all her speed, and scored on 30.00 to go into eighth place.
But Li was on impeccable form, launching up the 7m wall fearlessly and transitioning well between difficult tricks to post 81.25, going into provisional third.
A relaxed-looking Atkin chatted to her coach at the top of the half-pipe and spent some time on her phone selecting her music choice for the run before setting off.
The 23-year-old’s amplitude – the height she gets on her jumps – is her major advantage over her rivals, and she powered into the lead with a superb, consistent opening run to score 90.50, remaining in the lead and with more difficult tricks in her locker.
Gu put together a much better second run – successfully landing the trick she erred on in qualifying – to soar into the lead with 94.00, putting the pressure back onto Atkin.
Australian 16-year-old Indra Brown recorded the first 1080 of the day – a cork 1080, three full rotations in the air – but only scored 65.00, while Li pushed Atkin down to third with a 91.50.
Atkin soared 5.4m, nearly 2m higher than most of her rivals, into the air with her first trick but came unstuck later in the run, clipping the pipe with her skis and crashing hard, unable to improve her score.
Gu posted a 94.75 with her best run yet, reaching a height of 4m to maintain her position at the top of the standings and guarantee a medal.
The 22-year-old ran to hug compatriot Li after the latter completed another strong final run, posting 93.00 to put China in the top two podium spots.
Atkin dropped into the half-pipe last, recovering after her crash to put in an excellent run. Her amplitude was again miles higher than any of her rivals but it was only enough for bronze, a 92.50.
But she appeared delighted nonetheless and celebrated with her fellow medallists, while Gu dropped to the snow in joy and disbelief after defending her title.
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