BONGPYEONG, South Korea — Somewhere engulfed by U.S.A. chants, shot-gunning of beers by his family and friends and signs with the 17-year-old’s face on them was Red Gerard at the bottom of the slope.
Team USA’s first gold medal went to Gerard in slopestyle as he became the youngest American snowboarder to win gold — and his personal fan section was there to witness it.
“It was huge to be honest. I was just so excited they were all here and that it all worked out,” Gerard said. “I can’t believe it to be honest.”
It was a dramatic finish at the Phoenix Snow Park. Before the final run, Gerard found himself at the bottom of the pack in 11th place. He had fallen on his second jump during the second run while attempting a double cork and played it safe for the rest of the run.
If he wanted any chance at the podium, he needed to bring out every trick in his book.
“I just wanted to land a run. I was just getting excited for the third run,” Gerard said. “Getting a little antsy, I guess I could say. Just ready for it to be over.”
The 5-foot-5-inch, 116-pound native of Cleveland, Ohio, delivered when it counted.
Nailing a switch backside 1260, a double cork off the quarterpipe and the triple cork 1440 — tricks many of his competitors never even attempted — landed Gerard an 87.16 score from the judges.
“It’s a little different, and I try to be a little different in all my runs,” Gerard said.
The teenager sat in first place, but with Canada’s Mark McMorris — the front runner until that point — still left to go, nobody’s nerves were calm yet.
But the two-time Olympian took a spill and when the announcer read McMorris’ score of 60.68, Gerard and his fan section kept their hope alive. Then, when the other half of Canada’s slopestyle duo, Max Parrot, went down, the Gerards knew what that meant: Red was taking gold.
“I think I was mind blown to be honest. I don’t even know if I was excited to be honest,” Gerard said. “I was jaw-dropped, like ‘this isn’t real.’ I honestly thought it could be a dream.”
Parrot would take home the silver while McMorris the bronze.
The unusually mellow Olympian was in a much calmer state during the run than brother, Brendan, who guarantees he was more nervous than his little brother.
“I couldn’t have been more nervous. Just shaking in my boots, both fingers crossed behind my back,” Brendan said. “It’s not like he hasn’t done that before. I know he has every ability to complete his run, and I knew he would do it.”
The Gerards left Silverthorne, Colorado, for the biggest stage in sports to support the sixth of seven kids in the family.
“It’s extremely surreal. I don’t know if we ever expected to come this far, but you have to understand that this was a full family effort,” Brendan said. “It’s a big push for the Gerards and USA.”
While Red can’t party yet as he still has snowboard big air to compete in, the Gerard party crew carries on.
“I saw a video of them shot-gunning beers at 8:30 a.m. this morning,” Red said. “They’re doing fine.”
Elizabeth Wyman is a Ball State University journalism student. She and 4 other BSU students will be periodically contributing Olympic stories to WTHR. The students are in PyeongChang, South Korea to cover the Olympics.
