St. Onge Qualifies 2nd, Peterson 5th
CYPRESS MOUNTAIN, BC – World Champion Ryan St. Onge (Winter Park, CO) qualified No. 2 overall for Thursday night's men's aerials final, while solid jumps from Jeret "Speedy" Peterson (Boise, ID) landed him fifth.
St. Onge scored a 122.57 on his first jump and a 118.10 on his second to trail only China's Zongyang Jia with 229.67 points on a clear, cold evening at Cypress Mountain.
Despite struggles in the World Cup this season, where his best finish is 13th, St. Onge said he has had the best jumps of his life in training this season. Monday night finally saw him transfer his training progress to the competition rounds.
"The training days went well, but not jumping to the par that I want to be and need to be," St. Onge said. "This afternoon during training, I came out and made those adjustments. Those adjustments set in perfectly, and I just felt confident and ready to come out and do nice jumps, and it happened."
Peterson went 119.47 and 117.87 on the same high degree of difficulty jumps as St. Onge – no Hurricane just yet.
"I've been having a really tough week," Peterson said. "I was not jumping the way I wanted to, I was not landing jumps the way I wanted to, but that's the one big thing that I've learned being a veteran is that it's not over until it's over.
"I couldn't be happier. It's exactly where I want to be. It's perfect."
Peterson said that he'll throw the much-awaited Hurricane if the conditions are right, whether or not he thinks he needs it to win.
"I don't have to, but I want to," he said. "That's just my personality. Go big or go home, baby."
Belarusian World Cup leader Anton Kushnir bowed out of the competition after falling on his second jump, stunning the crowd of 9,000.
"I was completely surprised when I heard the crowd react the way that they did after his jump, because it looked almost perfect from the top," Peterson said. "I feel bad because he's an amazing person. I really like him as a guy and scares the hell out of you as a jumper."
Matt DePeters (Hamburg, NY) was five spots out of the top 12 with a combined score of 202.48, landing his jumps but getting docked for degree of difficulty in his first taste of Olympic experience. His spirits were high, however.
"I haven't had more fun in my entire life," DePeters said. "Just the whole experience of everything and then to come out tonight and put two jumps down, just so happy right now."
Scotty Bahrke (Tahoe City, CA) struggled on the landings of his difficult jumps and was 23rd. His return to Cypress Mountain came as a surprise after watching sister Shannon win the bronze in women's moguls. Teammate Dylan Ferguson (Amesbury, MA) was forced to stay home after complications from a recent appendectomy, and Bahrke was first on the list to take his spot.
"I'd stopped working out a little bit because I didn't think I was going to be here, but I got back into shape within a couple of days and everything felt great," he said.
After failing to medal in 2006 for the only time in Olympic competition, the U.S. men will go for gold in men's aerials Thursday at 6 p.m. PT.
