PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA—Cassie Sharpe had three chances to win a gold medal.She only needed one.She soared into the lead in women’s ski halfpipe on the first of her three runs and never looked back.It was her big tricks — including a triple spin — and the fearless way she rode high above the pipe’s 22-foot-high walls that she will be remembered for as much as the medal itself.And that’s just the way she wanted it“I want someone to look and say: ‘Wow, I want to ski like that,’ ” the 22-year-old from Comox, B.C., said here before her event.“Winning is always a bonus.”Check and check.“It hasn`t really sunk in yet, but it`s just an incredible feeling,” Sharpe said, right after her win. “Just putting all my hard work into this, it`s just everything wrapped up into one.`Sharpe always likes to land her first run. It’s a confidence builder, for one. But when the score is as high as hers tend to be — 94.40 in the first run of the final — it also gives her freedom to add more progressive and riskier moves to her subsequent runs. Those are the ones she loves to perform.So, hand on her heart in gratitude on seeing the winning score after each run, she simply went back up to better it.Her second run netted 95.80 and, still not satisfied she’d achieved all she could, she hoped to raise it even higher on her final run.But the emotions of the moment — knowing that all her years of work had paid off and she was the Olympic champion — and the reaction of her coach Trennon Payner put a wrench in those plans.“I think it went downhill when I saw Trennon tearing up. He’s a guy that’s stone cold, you never really know how he feels,” she said.“At the point, I’m like, ‘oh my God stop hugging me’ because I’m going to cry and I need to focus and reel into this,” she said. “Obviously, I didn’t ...
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