Air Bergy grounded; Valenta wins gold
Published 9:00 pm Monday, February 18, 2002
By Eddie Pells
Associated Press
PARK CITY, Utah – A stunning fall left American Eric Bergoust – the defending gold medalist – last in the men’s aerials finals Tuesday and allowed Ales Valenta of the Czech Republic to win Olympic gold.
Hometown favorite Joe Pack, a football and soccer star at nearby Park City High School, won the silver and Alexei Grichin of Belarus won bronze.
Valenta tried and nailed a revolutionary quintuple-twisting, triple backflip on his second jump. It was only the second time he had tried it in competition, and the first time he landed it.
The Czech star assumed he would need the jump to defeat “Air Bergy,” the quirky perfectionist who was a heavy favorite for a repeat gold.
Bergoust was the last of the 12 skiers to jump on a cold, windy day at Deer Valley Ski Resort. It was a loose jump, nothing like what he normally displays, and he landed flat on his back.
He stood up, a glazed look of shock painted on his face, while his American coach, Matt Christensen, looked on stunned.
Bergoust said he took too much speed on the run into the jump, got too much air, over-rotated and probably overdid it because he didn’t want to be conservative.
“The scores were huge,” Bergoust said. “Ales Valenta put up a huge score. I wasn’t going for silver.”
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
