Three-time Olympic ski slopestyle medalist Nick Goepper earned his first World Cup win in halfpipe, leading the first U.S. podium sweep of a freestyle skiing World Cup outside of the U.S. in nearly 20 years.
Goepper prevailed at the 2022 Beijing Olympic venue of Secret Garden with a 95-point run that included the first switch right bone air 900 tail to be done in competition, according to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.
He was followed by two-time Olympic medalist Alex Ferreira and two-time Olympic gold medalist David Wise.
The last U.S. sweep at any freestyle skiing World Cup held outside of the U.S. was on Jan. 9, 2005 — Ryan St. Onge, Jeret “Speedy” Peterson and Joe Pack in aerials in Mont Tremblant, Canada.
The Goepper-Ferreira-Wise podium marked the third U.S. podium sweep in men’s halfpipe in the last year. Ferreira, Hunter Hess and Goepper recorded one in Mammoth Mountain, California, on Feb. 2. Ferreira, Hess and Birk Irving did so last Dec. 15 in Copper Mountain, Colorado.
Goepper, 30, announced in November 2023 that he was coming out of a 10-month retirement and switching events from slopestyle — where he won Olympic medals in 2014 (bronze), 2018 (silver) and 2022 (silver) — to halfpipe.
No American has won a medal in an individual event at four different Winter Olympics.
Goepper became the oldest man and first in his 30s to win a World Cup in a freeski event (halfpipe, slopestyle, big air), breaking the age record that Ferreira set last season.
Goepper also became the first American to beat Ferreira in competition since the January 2023 Winter X Games.
Last season, Ferreira won all seven of his competitions and became the first U.S. male freestyle skier to have an undefeated World Cup campaign in an event that’s on the Olympic program.
Wise, 34, broke his own record as the oldest man to make a World Cup ski halfpipe podium, his first since February 2023. Wise won the first two Olympic gold medals in halfpipe, which made its Olympic debut in 2014.
The next World Cup is in two weeks at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain, airing on CNBC and Peacock.
