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Show D-2 Wed/Thurs/Fri, February 14-16, 2018 Kauf comes up short Moguls medal chance thwarted, Parkite settles for seventh JOEL REICHENBERGER STEAMBOAT PILOT AND TODAY B OKWANG PHOENIX PARK, South Korea — Jaelin Kauf has made her success in freestyle moguls skiing with her speed, and she leaned on that trait Sunday evening at Bokwang Phoenix Park, South Korea, the site of the 2018 Winter Olympics women’s moguls event. “I wanted to be up on the podium today, but there’s still the (World Cup) crystal globe this year, World Champs next year and another Olympics in four years.” Her speed and her turns got her to the top of World Cup rankings this season, got her to a World Championship podium a year ago and got her to the Olympics this year. This time, however, for once a little patience may have paid off. Kauf advanced to the second of three finals rounds, but there she was bounced by the moguls course and in turn bounced from the moguls competition, placing seventh. JOEL REICHENBERGER/STEAMBOAT PILOT AND TODAY “I just rushed a little coming out, was a little impatient to get to the first mogul and that set me up poorly,” she said of a section high on the course after the first jump that gave her trouble. The United States had all four of its women in the first finals round of 20 skiers, and had three advance to the final 12. None made it to the final round of six, however. Keaton McCargo, from Telluride, placed eighth and Tess Johnson, from Vail, was 12th. Morgan Schild placed 15th. France’s Perrine Laffont pieced together the night’s winning run with it mattered the most, scoring in at 78.65 to won the gold medal. Justine Dufour-Lapointe, Jaelin Kauf, right, speaks with her mother Patti Kauf-Melehes on Sunday after placing seventh in the women’s freestyle moguls event at the 2018 Winter Olympics. backed up her 2014 Olympic gold medal with a 2018 silver medal, scoring at 78.56. Kazakhstan’s Yulia Galsheva then was third at 77.40. For Kauf, who attended and graduated from Steamboat Springs High School in Colorado before moving to Park City, missing the final round was the end of a dream, at least temporarily. She had the second-best score after the first finals run, but wasn’t clean in the second finals run. She struggled out of the top air, a place where that patience would have come in handy. She wasn’t clean through the middle section of the course, either. “Could have done more,” she said of the run. “I made mistakes in the middle and it was a little sloppy.” It was still nearly good enough. Kauf briefly sat in that sixth-place position until Dufour-Lapointe, with the last run of the round, knocked her out. Galysheva ended up as the sixth-place skier in that round, finishing just 0.75 points ahead of Kauf. The setback took some processing for Kauf, and, she said, it will likely take some more. She rode a tide of momentum into the Olympics, a wave that started building nearly a year ago. At that point, she was on the verge of losing her chance to start World Cups for the second half of the 2016-17 season. By the time the team arrived in Deer Valley Resort for what’s traditionally the squad’s World Cup highlight, she’d made the 16-skier finals just twice so far that season. She didn’t have a strong run in the first Deer Valley World Cup, either, and all the pressure mounted for the second event there, a dual moguls competition. Continued on D-3 » from G N A H C G 18 N 0 O 2 E PY PINS YOUR PINS: HOW TO GET COMM TH ECO R K R A EP RD PERS A P R E ST S OUR SI & E EN TIMAILY P S A e Th e VAIL D & Th E V I T A EMOR Buy Online! GET THE FULL SET OF 3 PINS OR MIX AND MATCH YOUR FAVORITES! PARKRECORD.COM/PINS Buy In Person! LOVE YOUR LOCAL PAPER? PICK UP ONLY THE PARK RECORD PIN AT THE PARK RECORD OFFICE! 1670 BONANZA DR. Subscribe! GET A FREE PARK RECORD PIN WITH EACH NEW SUBSCRIPTION TO THE PARK RECORD! CALL LACY AT 435.649.9014 |