Moguls, Women

The Women’s Moguls event at the 2010 Winter Olympics differed from recent World Championships by allowing the top 20 competitors (as opposed to the top 16) in the qualifying round to participate in the finals. The overwhelming favorites in the event were the Canadians and the Americans. Canada had the #1 ranked Jennifer Heil, who was also the defending Olympic champion, and the #5 ranked Kristi Richards, who had won the event at the 2007 World Championship. The United States had the #2 ranked Heather McPhie, the #3 ranked Hannah Kearney, who had captured the event at the 2005 World Championship, and the #4 ranked Shannon Bahrke, who had mogul silver medals from the 2002 Winter Olympics and the 2007 World Championships. These strengths were clearly visible at the end of the qualifying round, where six of the top seven competitors (the other being Aiko Uemura of Japan) were North American. The event was particularly significant for the Canadians who held Heil to be one of their best hopes in breaking their gold-medal drought in Olympics hosted in their country.

Some were worried that the finals might be delayed, or even canceled, as the weather worsened on the hill, but the skiers began on time, competing in intermittent rain and an increasingly soggy course. The event went as expected until American Michelle Roark, who had finished seventh in the qualifying round, crashed out and was soon followed in this regard by Richards and McPhie, leaving Bahrke as the front runner in the competition up to that point, followed by Uemura and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe of Canada. A great run by Heil placed her ahead of Bahrke by a slim margin, leaving only Kearney to challenge her for the gold. Kearney rose to the challenge and produced an amazing run, which left little doubt in the end that she had claimed victory in the event. Although she did not produce Canada’s first gold medal on home territory, Heil’s was the host nation’s first medal at the 2010 Games.