“It’s taken a long time to get to this level of jumping. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs. I’m just taking in every moment and being grateful that I made it here and I was able to compete the way I wanted to.”– Megan Nick, Olympic Aerial Skier.
In 1998, Nikki Stone won the gold medal in women’s aerial freestyle skiing in Nagano. Since then, no American women have been able to medal in individual aerial events for twenty-four years. That was until yesterday when Shelburne, Vermont native Megan Nick took home the bronze. She studied at the University of Utah and got to practice at Park Citys famous Utah Olympic Park. She broke out in the 2019-20 season with some solid results and won two world cup competitions in 2021. She had struggled recently before the Olympics, so the result comes as a bit of a surprise. She pulled off a score of 93.76 because of her excellent execution of back full-double full. You can watch the top ranking runs here, and Megan’s jump is below:
First Games and first medal.
We 👀 you Megan Nick! #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/N5v2ZF9tyu
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) February 14, 2022
Back in January, NBC 5 profiled Megan Nick and her upbringings in Vermont. After starting as a gymnast, she found out about aerial skiing camp in Lake Placid during a high school project. The rest is history.
In terms of the rest of the standings, Xu Mengtao from China took home the Gold with a score of 108.61, and Hannah Huskovan of Belarus took silver with a score of 107.95. American Ashley Caldwell, who earned a gold medal in the mixed team aerial competition, finished in fourth. Megan’s bronze medal is the United States’ 29th medal in freestyle skiing. The final standings are listed below:
Image/Video Credits: Team USA, NBC Sports, NBC 5
