Daily Updates — Live from Nagano

"I proved you all wrong," said Stone

US Flip for Victory and Win 4th and 5th US Golds

Nikki Stone, the aerial princess has been continually re-crowned on the World Cup Tour with four out of seven top podiums this season alone. You'd think this would leave her with little to prove here today. Wrong.

Nikki, 26, of Westborough, Massachusetts was here to win; she was here to show her doctors, her competitors and the world that she is the best aerialist on skis.

"It feels so amazing. I had doctors telling me I would never even jump again, and coming out here and winning a gold medal, I proved you all wrong," she said, regarding her '96 injury. Nikki made a 98.15 jump that held as best score for the first jump and insured the gold was kept in sight.

The young Chinese Nannan Xu stuck her second (double, full, double) more difficult launch, but was already behind Nikki by 10 points. The Chinese government had big plans for their freestyle team here today. The Chinese spent nearly half of their skiing budget on their freestyle team and four women came into the finals today. Xu led the Chinese team and took the silver medal with Switzerland's Colette Brand winning a bronze for her clean double back.

"Not only got our credential-less arses on a private media shuttle to the event, but we managed to convince the helicopter pilot..."

The men's field was amazingly stable today with but a few falls. The Canadian Air Force was dropping near perfect aerial bombs with precision pilots Andy Capicik, Jeff Bean and World Cup leader and world record holder Nicholas Fontaine leading the squadron. Nicolas came into the Olympics with the World Cup lead and the spread. He couldn't hang on after his first boost and laid back his second landing, closing his door on today's podium.

World Record Breaker, Bergoust

Then up to the plate came American Top Gun, Eric Bergoust, 28, of Missoula, Montana. His near first jump (full, double, full, full) scored him a 133.05, the highest single jump score ever in men's aerials. His second jump was no less commanding, a double, full, full, full that earned him 122.59 and the combo broke a record. Bergoust surpassed Canadian world champion Nicolas Fontaine's world record.

He knew his place on the podium was secure and fell to his knees with his face in his hands.

The Americans had to deal with one of its aces grounded today. Mariano Ferrario had injured his knee during Wednesday's Olympic Qualifiers. Britt Swartley was in the running but today belonged solely to Eric Bergoust. Frenchman Sebastien Foucras took the silver with first placed qualifier Dmitri Dashchinsky stomping his place into bronze.

Don't Ask Just... [click to zoom]

On a side note to the airborne extravaganza, Zone Team East had a bit of air time ourselves. The term "foreigner power" has found its way into the Zoners vocabulary and we not only got our credential-less arses on a private media shuttle to the event, but we managed to convince the helicopter pilot that if he didn't get Mr. Nagano and friend up in the air soon, then CBS was going to hear about it. The Japanese are way too friendly to "tourists."

—Hansu Purosol, breaking his Olympic Fever on The Mountain Zone

Women's Results

1 Nikki Stone United States 193.00
2 Nannan Xu China 186.97
3 Colette Brand Switzerland 171.83
4 Tetiana Kozachenko Ukraine 167.32
5 Alla Tsuper Ukraine 166.12
6 Hilde Synnoeve Lid Norway 160.18
7 Dandan Guo China 159.74
8 Yuliia Kliukova Ukraine 153.15
9 Veronica Brenner Canada 151.15
10 Olena Yunchik Ukraine 139.05
11 Michele Rohrbach Switzerland 129.36
12 Xiaoou Ji China DNS

1 Eric Bergoust United States 255.64
2 Sebastien Foucras France 248.79
3 Dmitri Dashchinsky Belarus 240.79
4 Ales Valenta Czech Republic 232.25
5 Britt Swartley United States 231.61
6 Alexandre Mikhailov Russia 229.98
7 Christian Rijavec Austria 227.60
8 Aleksei Grishin Belarus 220.99
9 Stanislav Kravchuk Ukraine 219.94
10 Nicolas Fontaine Canada 216.93
11 Jeff Bean Canada 210.77
12 Andy Capicik Canada 209.01