Winter Olympics: Birk Ruud flies flag for Norway and remembers late dad with big air Olympic gold
- Norwegian leads from start to finish in men’s final, nailing opening run to score a near-perfect 95.75 points
- Ruud’s father died last April, and skier says his dad ‘never cared about results, just about me being happy’
Birk Ruud led from the start to win Beijing Olympic gold in style in the men’s freeski Big Air on Wednesday - even carrying a Norwegian flag in his hand for his third run.
A day after China’s Eileen Gu needed a stunning final jump to land gold in the women’s event, Ruud dominated the men’s field from the opening round.
The 21-year-old landed a stunning opening leap of five and a half rotations for a near-perfect score of 95.75 points.
“I have had this as a goal since I was 13 or 14 years old, even before this became an Olympic sport. I was really proud to put down those tricks and land those jumps,” Ruud said.
He had built up such a commanding lead that he held his country’s flag in his hand for his third jump, drapping it over his shoulders after landing.
“My coach brought out the flag before I jumped. I still had to stay focused to do my tricks,” he said. “I was really in the moment and took the opportunity. I wanted to put on a show for Norway.
“There is a lot of stuff happening in the world and it was nice to put on a show here.”