Mayer Rocks; Moseley Rolls

Jonny Moseley completed his new signature trick, the Dinner Roll, much to the delight of the raucous, flag-waving crowd who came to watch the men’s freestyle skiing moguls competition Tuesday.

Just about the only folks he didn’t overwhelm, it seems, were the judges.

Although he temporarily stole the show with his new move, Moseley, 26, won’t know the spotlight at these Games of standing on the medals podium.

Janne Lahtela of Finland, solid and fast if not innovative, won the gold; Travis Mayer of Steamboat Springs, Colo., took the silver; and Richard Gay of France got the bronze.

As for the empty-handed Moseley, don’t feel too bad. The 1998 Olympic gold medalist pronounced himself “super-satisfied” with his effort, adding that it was his goal to “come out here and put on a good show.”

That he did. And if American fans were disappointed that his effort wasn’t rewarded with a medal, perhaps they derived some consolation from Mayer’s silver medal. Doesn’t everyone love an underdog?

Only a couple of months ago, the 19-year-old on leave from Cornell University wasn’t even among the best mogul skiers on the U.S. team. “I didn’t expect this to happen,” he said.

Mayer’s score of 27.59 placed him comfortably in front of Gay, at 26.91, and bested all but Lahtela, a four-time Olympian who is known more for being technically precise than for being fancy.

Lahtela’s winning mark of 27.97 was accomplished because he was smooth and fast, if not particularly scintillating with his acrobatics. “The Olympic Games--for me, it’s not about trying something new,” Lahtela said. “You don’t train really hard for four years, go to the Olympics and see if it will happen.”

One Dinner Roll, he correctly reasoned, does not an Olympic victory banquet make. Half of the scoring is based on a skier’s ability to keep a tight, close line downhill. The other half is split between time and two aerial moves.

Therefore, the Dinner Roll--two full spins with the body nearly parallel to the ground--accounted for only 121/2% of Moseley’s score, which was 26.78. So though it might be fun and exciting, “It takes a lot more than one jump to win the contest,” Lahtela said.

For example, Moseley’s time of 28.56 seconds down the course was third-slowest of the 16 finalists.

This, of course, was not a justifiable excuse for him not medaling, according to his many fans.

“It’s not the ‘70s anymore,” said Charlotte Moats, 21, of Salt Lake City. “If the crowd is on its feet, I don’t understand how the judges don’t understand that.”

None of the 29 other athletes competing tried anything remotely as innovative as Moseley’s move. Their tricks--aerial maneuvers from ramps placed between fields of moguls--came from a now-standard repertoire: spinning once around while flying or twisting the skis back and forth three or four times while in the air.

The last time Moseley introduced something new at the Olympics, his “360 Mute Grab”--grasping an inside ski while doing a full spin with his skis crossed--at Nagano, Japan, helped him win the gold medal.

It also made him a celebrity. Back then, his life was so hectic that it took him an entire day to find the time to place a return call to President Clinton, who wanted to congratulate him.

And to that end, Moseley remains an A-list celebrity, fourth place and all.

NBC has announced that Moseley will guest host “Saturday Night Live” on March 2.

So what will he do on national TV? Moseley was asked after Tuesday’s race. “Have fun, that’s for sure,” he said.

Jeremy Bloom, a 19-year-old University of Colorado football player from Loveland, Colo., took ninth. A wide receiver who redshirted in football last season so he could ski, he came into the Games leading the World Cup moguls tour. “I messed up today,” he said after Tuesday’s race.

The other American, Evan Dybvig of Tunbridge, Vt., was unable to compete after injuring his right knee when he crashed during a qualifying run.