Ben Barclay (Auckland, 20) has completed his debut Olympic campaign with a 10th place finish in the freeski slopestyle finals.
“I am really stoked with how I skied, wanted a bit more in the finals but at the end of the day I exceeded my expectations of myself.”
Barclay came out of the start gate right from run one showing that he meant business. He twice put down a technical run but both times came unstuck on the second jump attempting his right double cork 1620.
“Going into that third run after crashing both the of first two runs on jump two I definitely considered dialling it back a bit, but I decided I am at the Olympics, I don’t want to do a safety run, might as well go all out and see what happens.”
What happened was Barclay landed his complete run top to bottom, albeit with a bobble or two, and was rewarded a 67.40 to finish in 10th place.
Although not quite the result Barclay was looking for, a fantastic performance nonetheless for the young Kiwi. He said, “I’ve watched this event at the past two winter Olympics from the couch at home and have been in awe. Today being able to stand next to my idols who are now my mates is something I will cherish forever.”
2 years ago
Ben Barclay