Vail’s Owens 10th in Olympic moguls debut as Kauf claims silver medal

Team USA on Sunday issued the following press release on Jaelin Kauf of Wyoming winning the silver medal in the moguls finals at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, with Kai Owens of Vail recovering from an eye injury to make the finals and finish 10th overall.

It was Owens’ Olympic debut at age 17, and Kauf was the only Olympic veteran on the women’s team, having finished seventh at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Veteran Tess Johnson, also of Vail, was passed over for Beijing despite two World Cup podiums heading into the event.

Kauf is the daughter of former Vail residents Scott and Patti Sherman-Kauf, who both won multiple World Pro Mogul Tour titles in the 1990s. Here’s the Team USA release on Owens’ finish and Kauf’s silver medal run:

ZHANGJIAKOU, China – Jaelin Kauf was joined by all three of her U.S. teammates – Olivia Giaccio, Hannah Soar and Kai Owens – in the finals, who were all making their Olympic debuts.

Giaccio, 21, competed in the super-final round alongside Kauf, scoring a 75.61 in 29.60 with a back full and cork 720 on the aerials. Giaccio was the first woman to land a cork 1080 in competition but opted out and “chose not to do it and that was the play.”

The Redding, Connecticut, native put down a run she was comfortable with and closed out of super finals in sixth place at the Winter Games.

“Definitely being in the medal round in general is something that I’ve always dreamed of ever since I began moguls skiing,” said Giaccio following her final run. “While it’s definitely a bit of a bummer not to be on the podium, I do believe I performed my best. So, I’m happy with today.”

Soar, 22, and Owens, 17, earned their way into the second round of finals. Soar narrowly missed out of super finals placing in seventh with a 75.16 in 28.95, while Owens claimed 10th with 65.49 in 28.54 after saving a rough landing during her run.

Owens had a serious eye injury from training prior to the first-round qualifiers and opted out to attend to the injury.

The Vail, Colorado, native crushed the second qualifiers with a 69.92 to make the finals when she noted she could barely see out of her left eye just days before.

“I owe a huge thanks to our Team USA and U.S. Ski & Snowboard staff just for helping me be out here,” Owens said. “After a big hit and injury, it was definitely tough mentally – and obviously – very tough physically to come back, but I love moguls skiing. I’m so grateful to be here and I’m so proud I was able to step up to the gate today.”

When asked about how her Olympic experience has treated her, Soar was nothing short of ecstatic for Kauf’s performance and supportive of Giaccio and Owens.

“I think the Olympics is a great place to really come together,” the Killington, Vermont, native said. “That’s honestly when medals really do feel like a team-supported endeavor, especially because it’s our team, it’s our U.S. Ski & Snowboard team and then it’s Team USA. And I think we’ve done a great job of just embodying the Olympic spirit here.”

More on Kauf from the same press release:

Another medal performance is in the bag for Team USA as Jaelin Kauf clinched silver in the moguls finals Sunday at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

Kauf, 25, cruised through her final run, earning an 80.28 in 26.49 alongside a backflip mute grab on the top aerial and a backflip iron cross on the bottom. She was leading until Australia’s Jakara Anthony closed out the super finals to take gold with 83.09.

“Like [my super-finals run] wasn’t a flawless run, and I just didn’t know what the judges were going to do with that,” the two-time Olympian said. “When it popped up with my score, I realized that I was getting an Olympic medal.”

Kauf’s silver medal followed U.S. snowboarder Julia Marino’s  silver in the women’s snowboard slopestyle finals earlier on Sunday to take Team USA’s medal count to two.

The Alta, Wyoming, native admitted that her final run was arguably the worse out of all three, claiming that she was skiing too fast into the middle section of moguls.

“I definitely felt pretty in control for all my runs,” Kauf said. “Probably the least I controlled was the last one. I missed the first turn coming out of the top air, so I was skiing pretty fast out of there. For every run, I was just fighting every turn to just give it everything that I had.”