PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — When Devin Logan was on the chair lift between her second and third slopestyle final runs on Saturday, she was dancing and bopping along to the music in her headphones. Despite a fall on her first run and just a 56.80 on her second run, she carried herself with confidence before her final trip down the slope.
Starting seventh and sitting in 10th through two runs, Logan, the silver medalist in Sochi, fist-bumped two of her coaches at the top of the slope and took off for her third try on the course at Phoenix Snow Park. But she fell coming off a rail early in her run.
“I knew I was falling off early, but I wanted to get my unnatural back [270] out of the way and just fell off early and slid it out,’’ said Logan, who went on to finish 10th. “It was the run I wanted to do tricks-wise, it just wasn’t the cleanest. Judges don’t like that, really.’’
Switzerland’s Sarah Hoefflin and Mathilde Gremaud captured gold and silver, respectively, with Great Britain’s Isabel Atkin taking bronze. Fellow American Maggie Voisin finished just off the podium in fourth.
Logan, who is from West Dover, Vt., was upbeat after slopestyle despite her finish, playing with a pair of tiny-hand toys her brother picked up for her at X Games. She stuck them on her index fingers and used them to wave at the camera.
“Wish it could’ve gone better, but what can you do? It’s just skiing,’’ she said. “I’m going to see another day, I’m going to ski another day.’’
Indeed, Logan’s PyeongChang Olympic journey is not over. After missing halfpipe training on Saturday to compete in slopestyle, she will be back in the pipe Sunday for practice before qualifiers unfold on Monday morning, which will be Sunday night on the East Coast. The finals are Tuesday morning, Monday night on the East Coast.
Before the Games, US ski coach Mike Jankowski said Logan and the coaches and staff would need to budget her energy as efficiently as possible so there would be no wasted time. Logan said her schedule at these Games has actually allowed for more down time than what she usually has at a competition.
“It’s usually qualify one day, qualify the next, finals and finals, where I get a little bit of a breather [here], so that’s a bonus,’’ said Logan, who plans to do her usual seven hits despite the halfpipe being about 100 feet longer than what the team usually sees.
Competing in both, and well, at that, is simply crazy to halfpipe teammate and Andover native Annalisa Drew.
“I get pretty tired after pipe training, so I can’t imagine doing two in the same day, although we all did grow up doing both, it’s just crazy that she’s stuck to both,’’ Drew said earlier this week.
Halfpipe teammate Brita Sigourney said Logan garners a great deal of respect for not only competing in both but doing it with a positive outlook.
“I can’t even imagine what she’s feeling, but she’s a trouper because she does it all and she does it with a smile on her face,’’ Sigourney said.
Despite her result in slopestyle, Logan said she is still “ecstatic’’ to showcase her skillset again.
“The first lady freeskier to do both halfpipe and slopestyle, so doing it my own way, making history my own way,’’ she said.
