Kaila Kuhn wins aerials as U.S. earns four more medals to end freestyle skiing worlds
Kaila Kuhn became the youngest American to win an individual world title in aerials as the U.S. earned four total medals between aerials and halfpipe to close the freestyle skiing world championships.
Kuhn, a 21-year-old from Michigan, landed a lay-full-full, or a double twisting triple backflip, for 105.13 points in the six-woman super final in Switzerland on Sunday.
It's the first senior top-level win for Kuhn, who previously finished third in a pair of World Cups.
'This is the biggest surprise, and I could not be happier,' she said. 'It's been kind of a rough season for me transitioning to triples (jumps).'
Kuhn prevailed over 2022 Olympic gold medalist Xu Mengtao of China (99.16 points) and two-time World Cup season champion Danielle Scott of Australia (96.93).
Kuhn landed that triple jump in competition for the first time in the mixed team event at worlds on Thursday, which the U.S. also won.
'I trained that trick all summer, and I decided to put it down when it counted,' she said.
Kuhn was the world junior silver medalist in 2022, one month after placing eighth in individual aerials in her Olympic debut at age 18. She converted to aerials from gymnastics.
In Sunday's men's final, Swiss Noe Roth and American Quinn Dehlinger went one-two for a second consecutive worlds.
Roth won with a double full-double full-full for 143.31 points. Dehlinger scored 123.53 with one less twist — a double full-full-full
Two years ago, Dehlinger became at age 20 the youngest American man to ever win an individual Olympic or world championships aerials medal.
The slopestyle convert is the latest freestyle skiing star to come out of the Cincinnati area, and specifically Perfect North Slopes in nearby Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
Perfect North also produced Nick Goepper, a three-time Olympic slopestyle medalist who won ski halfpipe silver at worlds on Sunday. And Justin Schoenefeld, the top American male aerialist at the 2022 Olympics (fifth place) who was also part of the gold-medal-winning team at those Games.
As of 2022, Perfect North consisted of five magic carpets, two rope tows, five chairlifts and 23 trails, one of which was expert. The highest point of the hill is 400 feet tall. In contrast, the 2002 Olympic venue of Deer Valley, Utah, has 103 runs and is 3,000 feet tall.
Earlier Sunday, Americans Goepper and Alex Ferreira finished second and third in the ski halfpipe won by Finley Melville Ives, an 18-year-old from New Zealand.
Melville Ives landed a pair of double cork 1620s in his 96-point first run, according to broadcast commentary. It held up through the two-run final.
He became the youngest man to win a world title in ski halfpipe, breaking the age record held by his countryman, 2022 Olympic gold medalist Nico Porteous. Porteous last competed in September and has been doing ski filming this winter.
Melville Ives' twin brother, Campbell, finished fifth in snowboard halfpipe at worlds on Saturday.
Goepper, a three-time Olympic medalist in ski slopestyle, briefly retired and then came back in 2023 in halfpipe. He won the X Games in January.
Ferreira, an Olympic silver and bronze medalist in halfpipe, won all seven of his competitions in the 2023-24 season.
Goepper and Ferreira are leading candidates to make the 2026 U.S. Olympic team of up to four men. They could be joined by 2014 and 2018 gold medalist David Wise, who finished 11th on Sunday and is bidding for one final Games.
In women's ski halfpipe, Brit Zoe Atkin landed three 720s in a 93.50-point run for her first world title after finishing second and third at the previous two worlds.
Svea Irving was the top American in fifth.
The event lacked Olympic champion Eileen Gu of China, who hasn't competed since crashing at the X Games in January. Gu posted then that she was OK but was unable to walk at the time after 'some really aggressive bruising.'
Nick Zaccardi,
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