Three-time Olympian Maggie Voisin finished fifth in the women’s ski slopestyle finals at the 2022 Olympics.
Mathilde Gremaud, the silver medalist in 2018 and the last competitor to qualify to the finals in 2022, earned gold with a score of 86.56 on her second run. China’s Eileen Gu earned silver with an 86.23 on her third run and Estonia’s Kelly Sildaru earned bronze due to her first run of 82.06.
The competition on a course featuring rails and jumps consisted of three runs for each of the 12 qualifiers, the best of which counted.
The Whitefish skier had hoped to improve on her fourth-place finish from 2018 in Pyeongchang. She qualified for the final in fourth the day prior and was in podium position until the final run.
On a day with a reported temperature of -9 at the start of the contest, Voisin had a strong start to her first run on the rail section, but came off the first jump awkwardly and lost momentum going into the other two jumps.
She came back in the second run with a solid progression on the rails and followed it up with two 900s and a double cork 1260 on the final run. The judges awarded her 74.28 which was just ahead of the Russian Olympic Committee skier Anastasia Tatalina with 74.16.
So Voisin entered the third run in third place. Tatalina was just ahead of Voisin in the order so when Tatalina did a double cork 1440 on the final jump, the judges awarded her 75.71 pushing her into third and Voisin into fourth right before Voisin’s third run.
After exchanging fist bumps with her coaches in the start, Voisin performed a similar run to her second while trying to improve on her previous score with better execution. But a slight hand drag on the landing of her first 900 jump resulted in a final score of 66.03 and no improvement in score or position.
China’s Gu, also the ski big air gold medalist already, was next and her final run score of 86.23 ultimately bumped Voisin into fifth.
Voisin was the only American to compete in the final. Missoula’s Darian Stevens finished 17th in qualifying and the other two – Caroline Claire and Marin Hamill – were ultimately sidelined by injury.
Both Voisin and Stevens also competed in ski big air earlier in Beijing.
Voisin is one of four Montanans competing in Beijing and one of two from Whitefish. Jake Sanderson is a member of the U.S. men’s hockey team.