Calgary native Dylan Marineau reacts to fans during the men's freestyle skiing halfpipe finals on Friday.Lindsey Wasson/The Associated Press
Canadian freestyle skier Dylan Marineau was beaming after finishing 11th in the halfpipe final in his first Olympics.
The 27-year-old from Calgary didn’t land a clean run at the Milan Cortina Games, but not for lack of trying Friday evening at Livigno Snow Park.
“I didn’t want to dial it back and be disappointed with a lower-difficulty run so I really went for it,” he said.
Marineau took pride at being the first to land a double flip with a 1260 rotation and safety grab in competition, pulling it off on his first run but failing to repeat it on his next two runs.
“I did it a couple of months ago in the spring and that was when it was a world first. But today was a contest first. No one had done it in contest until today.”
Marineau competes in the men's freestyle skiing halfpipe finals.Abbie Parr/The Associated Press
He said it took him four years to successfully perform off the trick.
“I guess you could say I still don’t have it figured out, but in the next four years when I come back, it will be figured out. It will be a staple of my run.”
Marineau has savoured his Olympic experience.
“It was a very emotional day for me,” he said. “I was crying all the time, not out of sadness but out of joy.”
Marineau also was delighted that his father Dennis Marineau, who competed for Canada in bobsled at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, was able to see him perform.
Originally Marineau Sr., who is now a coach with the U.S. bobsled team, was just slated to stay for Thursday’s qualification, and then return to Cortina d’Ampezzo to rejoin his team.
Mother Nature stepped in, with poor weather pushing qualification back to Friday ahead of the final.
Fortunately Marineau Sr. got the green light from his bobsledders to stay over in Livigno.
“They all said ’No, no, no don’t come back yet … Be there for your son,’” Dylan related. “So it was really fun seeing him over in the crowd when I finished my first run. Because I heard him yell and I wasn’t expecting to hear him, because I thought he had already left.”
Brendan Mackay won bronze while fellow Calgarian Andrew Longino was seventh.