Greig Leach

The title gives you into my feelings about the Men's Free Style Half Pipe event. As the runs progressed, the winds got stronger and stronger leaving few skiiers able to get to the bottom of the pipe upright. But worse than not finishing their run, some fell hard and may only think they weren't hurt due to the adrenaline of the moment, including the Gold Medal winner Nico Porteous (New Zealand) who fell hard on his shoulder due to a hard cross gust of win. On Aaron Blunck's (USA) final run, while trying to get a score that would put him on the podium, fell hard and spent some time not moving on the flat bottom of the half pipe. His teammate, David Wise (who had fallen hard on one of his own runs) ran up the pipe to make sure Aaron was going to be okay. He was able to get up and ski down to the finish corral. Wise was able to win the Silver Medal sue to the strength of his first run. He made have completed another, but it was much lower score as he respected the win, his life, and his family back home. Side note the delayed women's Alpine events and even postponed one of the men's events to the next day. Just because the half pipe looks like a daredevil sport, doesn't mean they don't have any regard for their own safety, and so should the IOC!