Matt Graham wins bronze in the men’s dual moguls
“The fact that the course was challenging probably worked in my favor. I knew I had to ski, I couldn’t let the other person take over my focus. I just had to focus on the big guys in front of me and adapt on the fly,” Graham said.
“I actually lost my pole three times in the semi-final against Ikuma before diving off the bottom. I was flying under and doing a backflip and landing on my feet to catch my pole, so that was pretty crazy.
“And when I lost that, I knew it was up to me to make sure we got the dad podium (all medalists are dads).”
Double emperor medalist Ikuma Horishima, Mikael Kingsbury and Matt Graham with their partners and children.Credit: access point
Sunday also marks the 20th anniversary of Australia’s Dale Begg-Smith winning the Mongols gold medal at the 2006 Olympics in Turin.
Wednesday’s gold medalist Woods was eliminated from his second-round match against Charlie Mickel of the United States after failing to land the second jump; Countrymen Jackson Harvey and George Murphy were also eliminated before the semi-finals.
Woods said the ride was harder on the blue course, where he missed his final jump, but that was the nature of the sport.
“It just comes down to the way the course is built and the number of people skiing on each line. [been] “A lot of people are blue inside, which was probably a little bit of an error in my judgment,” Woods said.
“The outside left [blue]Where I ski in singles is a pretty nice line, there are a little less people there. It’s a lot harder to ski when you jump into a line that’s a little tighter and a little more skiable.
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“That’s the way it works. There are other factors like the way the sun cooks the route and so on, but it’s usually a matter of numbers; how many people are in each row.”
Graham’s wife, Jess, said she was too nervous to watch the match but was happy to finish the race with a medal.
“It’s so frustrating for me, but I’m so happy and blessed for him. Just being here is amazing,” he said.
“I’m so happy for him, he definitely deserves this. He works so hard for him to be here.” [their daughter] very cool.
“I looked at it at the last minute but I can’t watch it go down the course, it’s too stressful.”
Winter Olympic Games are broadcast on TV 9Network, 9Now And Stan Sports.
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