Maddie Bowman of U.S. claims gold in women's ski halfpipe

SOCHI, Russia, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- American Maddie Bowman won gold in the women's free ski halfpipe, following fellow American David Wise who won the gold in the men's event Tuesday.

This the first time event has been held at the Olympics and Bowman was flawless in both her runs, scoring 89.00 in her winning run, improving on her opening run score of 85.80. France's Marie Martinod took silver, and Japan's Ayana Onozuka took bronze.

All four U.S. skiers made the finals, but Angeli Vanlaanen and Brita Sigourney both fell on their first runs and Annalisa Drew fell during second run. The three Americans weren't the only ones who had falls, with six of the 11 skiers falling at least once.

But none of the medalists fell in either of their runs and skied cleanly all night. A lot of the skiers paid respect to the late Sarah Burke, a Canadian skier who helped get the sport in the Games. Burke died in 2012 after severing her vertebral artery during a training accident.

[USAToday]