Stone Finds Redemption, Etches Herself a Spot in Medal Round

Nikki Stone redeemed herself, for misses distant and recent, and Britt Swartley and Eric Bergoust joined her American celebration in freestyle skiing aerials qualifying Monday at Iixuna Kogen.

Stone, who just missed qualifying for the finals four years ago at Lillehammer, Norway, came close to missing again here with a sprawling landing on her first jump, which left her in a vulnerable position.

But she pulled things together for her second jump--a layout, tuck, full twist--landed it solidly and will go into Wednesday’s finals in fourth place.

Twelve skiers qualified for the men’s and women’s finals and qualifying scores will not carry over.

Swartley and Bergoust qualified easily, Swartley second and Bergoust fourth, and Swartley would have been first had not Dmitri Dashchinsky of Belarus landed an impressive second jump, bumping Swartley out of the lead.

“I’ve had rough practices and haven’t been jumping well the last few weeks so I’m just glad I made it,” Swartley said.

Bergoust concurred.

“It was slushy and I was lucky I finally got it together for today,” he said. “Wednesday, I want to hit my jumps right and risk crashing. Today, all I had to do was land.”

Landing was a problem for a lot of jumpers Monday, but those who landed were amply rewarded.

“Those are some of the highest scores I’ve ever seen in our sport,” Bergoust said.

In aerials, competitors execute acrobatic maneuvers high in the air after launching themselves off a snow ramp called a kicker. Judges score each jump on take-off, height and distance, form and landing.

It was the landing on her first jump that nearly caused grief for Stone, this season’s World Cup leader.

“I definitely had my nerves up and I got mad at myself,” she said. “I said, ‘Nikki, you don’t want this to happen this way. Go up there and do whatever you can to make it happen.’ ”

So she did.

“It’s a huge relief,” she said. “In Lillehammer I just missed. I was in 13th place [after qualifying]. I can refocus now and fourth is a great place to be. Going in first can be really nerve-racking.”

China’s Xu Nannan finished first among the women, followed by Alla Tsuper of Ukraine and Veronica Brenner of Canada.

Australians Jacqui Cooper and Kirstie Marshall, who rank second and fourth in World Cup standings, both missed landings and will miss the finals.

So will Americans Tracy Evans and Stacey Blumer, but they were more fortunate than male teammate Mariano Ferrario, who was carried off the hill with a knee injury after falling on his second jump. Matt Chojnacki also missed qualifying.