University of Utah alum Megan Nick wins USA’s second-ever medal in women’s aerial skiing

United States’ Megan Nick competes in the course of the girls’s aerials qualification on the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. Nick received the bronze medal

Francisco Seco, Related Press

College of Utah graduate Megan Nick did one thing no U.S. girl has carried out since 1998.

Nick twisted and turned her solution to the bronze medal in girls’s aerial snowboarding on the Winter Olympics on Monday, turning into the primary American girl to medal within the occasion since Nikki Stone did so on the 1998 Video games.

“(I’m) very overwhelmed however I’m extraordinarily comfortable,” Nick mentioned, per Staff USA. “I used to be very relieved to place down the leap that I did tonight and to get on the rostrum. I can’t even clarify the way it feels. It’s unimaginable. I'm simply extraordinarily grateful to be right here and for this chance.”

Nick was the one athlete to not carry out a triple flip within the remaining spherical, however as a result of she landed her again full-double full cleanly, whereas teammate Ashley Caldwell, Australia’s Laura Peel and China’s Fanyu Kong stumbled whereas trying to land triple flips.

First Video games and first medal.

We you Megan Nick! #WinterOlympicspic.twitter.com/N5v2ZF9tyu

— Staff USA (@TeamUSA) February 14, 2022

In her first Olympics, Nick goes dwelling with a medal.

“I believed I used to be going to throw up, however I used to be in a position to calm my nerves sufficient to land some jumps, thank goodness,” Nick mentioned. “I knew it was going to be difficult as a result of the sector is so good. Everybody’s leaping at such a excessive degree that I knew I needed to put down a great leap. I’m simply relieved that I used to be in a position to try this.”

Caldwell, additionally a Utah alum, earlier received the gold medal as a part of the USA combined aerial crew. She completed in fourth place with a rating of 83.71.

China’s Xu Mengtao received gold with a rating of 108.61 for her again full-full-full, whereas Belarus’ Hanna Huskova took silver with a rating of 107.95 for her again lay-full-full.

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How different athletes with Utah ties did in Monday’s medal occasions

Freestyle snowboarding — girls’s slopestyle remaining

Maggie Voisin — Park Metropolis resident — fifth place out of 11 rivals.

Alpine snowboarding — girls’s downhill

Keely Cashman — College of Utah (2021 Utah ski crew) — seventeenth place out of 36 rivals.

Jacqueline Wiles — Westminster School (former pupil) — twenty first place out of 36 rivals.

Roni Remme (Canada) — College of Utah (2016-20 Utah ski crew) — twenty fourth place out of 36 rivals