Kearney and Heil made it easily through rainy qualifying at women's moguls Saturday -- keeping Heil in the mix to become the first Canadian to win an Olympic gold in her home country, and putting Kearney, the American, in her first Olympic final.
Kearney was the defending world champion at the Turin Games in 2006 when she bobbled coming out of the gate, never got her bearings and finished 22nd -- out of the finals and forced to watch Heil win it all from the bottom.
This time, Kearney finished first, meaning she'll go last when the scores are reset for the finals later Saturday.
"It's a big deal for me," Kearney said of the safe qualifying run that most top skiers take for granted. "Four years ago was devastating, and I had to watch the night finals and didn't get to ski. This means there's one step down, and another to go."
Kearney scored 25.96 points in qualifying to beat Heil by .46. The Canadian came into the Olympics with four straight victories in the World Cup and a very good chance to make some history. No Canadian has won gold at the two previous Olympics up North -- 1976 in Montreal and 1988 in Calgary.
Information From:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-features/news/newsid=414366.html#heil+kearney+moguls+qualifying
No comments:
Post a Comment