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Six years in the past, Park Metropolis resident Colby Stevenson was fortunate to be alive.
Now, he's an Olympic silver medalist.
In 2016, Stevenson fell asleep on the wheel whereas driving himself and a good friend, who had damaged his leg in a snowboarding contest, again from the competitors. Stevenson was driving his good friend's truck for him when Stevenson fell asleep on the wheel for a second, then overcorrected. The truck rolled six instances, with the roof collapsing in on him.
The passenger, John Michael Fabriz, by some means escaped with out damage.
Stevenson wasn’t so fortunate.
The accident left him hospitalized and in extreme situation.
He suffered 30 fractures in his cranium. He broke vertebrae in his neck and broke ribs, elements of his jaw and eye socket. He needed to have a craniotomy to repair his cranium, together with different surgical procedures.
“It was six months of hell, principally,” Stevenson mentioned in a video that ran on NBC throughout Tuesday’s snowboarding large air medal spherical on the 2022 Olympics.
Miraculously, Stevenson suffered no mind harm.
He was again snowboarding in six months.
Stevenson detailed how the crash modified his mindset.
“I shifted my focus from desirous to win to simply being grateful for with the ability to journey and residing life,” he mentioned.
Since then, he’s change into among the finest skiers on this planet, successful the World Cup championship for slopestyle in 2021.
On Tuesday, the 24-year-old added an Olympic medal to his trophy case after successful the silver medal within the Olympic debut of huge air.
In large air, athletes are given three runs to carry out one of the best trick. The bottom rating of these three runs is thrown away, and the very best two scores for every athlete is mixed to find out the winners.
Stevenson began out gradual, scoring a 34.75 on his first run, and it regarded prefer it will not be his day.
He rebounded to place himself in place to win a medal with a 91.75.
On his third — and last — run, he nailed a swap double cork 1800 — rotating his physique 5 full instances with two flips — for a rating of 91.25 to safe silver. His mixed rating was 183.00.
Norway’s Birk Ruud received gold with a mixed rating of 187.75, whereas Sweden’s Henrik Harlaut took bronze with a mixed rating of 181.00.
Utah residents Alex Corridor and Mac Forehand additionally competed within the large air medal last, with Corridor ending in eighth place out of 12 opponents and Forehand ending in eleventh place.
Jessie Diggins makes U.S. Olympic historical past
Jessie Diggins continues to make Olympic historical past.
In her third Olympic look, the previous Westminster School pupil received bronze within the ladies’s cross-country particular person dash on Tuesday, turning into the first-ever American lady to win a person cross-country medal on the Olympics.
On the 2018 Video games, Diggins and teammate Kikkan Randall received america’ first cross-country gold medal, taking first place within the ladies’s crew dash.
“This actually belongs to the entire crew,” Diggins mentioned Tuesday, per Staff USA. “It’s taken so a few years to get right here, to have a U.S. lady win a person medal, and that’s one thing that doesn’t occur alone, and it doesn’t occur with out loads of assist.”
Down the stretch, Diggins separated herself sufficient from the four-women pack to cross the end line of the 1.5-kilometer race with a time of three:12.84, simply forward of Salt Lake Metropolis native Rosie Brennan, who had a time of three:14.17 to complete fourth.
The 30-year-old Diggins didn’t know if she had received bronze for certain till she regarded on the outcomes on the board.
Then, it set in.
Sweden’s Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist received gold and silver, respectively. Sundling completed in a time of three:09.68, and Dahlqvist crossed the end line in a time of three:12.56.
To get to the ultimate, Diggins and Brennan needed to get by way of a qualifying spherical. Subsequent up, two hours and half-hour later, had been the quarterfinal races.
Each Diggins and Brennan completed within the high two of their six-person quarterfinals, with the highest two of every quarterfinal advancing to the semifinals simply an hour later.
Within the semifinals, each Diggins and Brennan had been within the high six and certified for the ultimate.
In whole, Diggins and Brennan skied 4 grueling races within the span of about 4 hours, .
“I used to be simply in loads of ache. It was a extremely difficult course, however I really like that,” Diggins advised NBC’s “Immediately” present. “My largest objective was simply to complete with nothing left.”
Speedskater Casey Dawson’s wild journey to Olympics
Park Metropolis native Casey Dawson, who examined constructive for COVID-19 three weeks in the past, couldn’t produce the required variety of consecutive unfavourable COVID-19 exams in time for the opening ceremony.
Lastly, he was capable of take a look at unfavourable 4 instances in a row and was authorised to fly to Beijing and compete within the Olympics. He arrived in Beijing about 11 hours earlier than his race time on Tuesday, in response to NBC Information reporter Gadi Schwartz.
Lastly! Casey Dawson has simply landed in Beijing!!! Now all of it comes right down to how quickly he can get the outcomes of his COVID take a look at! The 1500M is about 11 hrs away! #getcaseytobeijing#WinterGames#Olympics2022pic.twitter.com/3b4rO76iPF
— Gadi Schwartz (@GadiNBC) February 7, 2022
Dawson flew from Salt Lake Metropolis to Atlanta, then from Atlanta to Paris, and eventually, from Paris to Beijing.
Dawson’s baggage didn’t arrive with him in Beijing.
Dawson ended up having to borrow skates from one other athlete as a result of his baggage didn’t arrive in time.
He completed in twenty eighth place of out 29 opponents within the males’s 1,500-meter medal race with a time of 1:49.45, however contemplating all he went by way of simply to get to Beijing, it was an accomplishment simply to race within the Olympics.
“I imply, simply being right here is simply superb,” he mentioned, per Yahoo Sports activities. “If I get my baggage or not, I’m nonetheless an Olympian.”
How different athletes with Utah ties did in Tuesday’s medal occasions
Luge — Girls’s singles
Ashley Farquharson — Park Metropolis resident — twelfth place out of 20 opponents.
Alpine snowboarding — Girls’s slalom
Katie Hensien — Park Metropolis resident — twenty sixth place out of 58 opponents.