PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — At an Olympics marked by a lackluster medal performance, the American team had been waiting for a flash of dominance, a sign that something actually was going as a lot of people back home wanted and expected it to.
High hopes for a sweep of the podium rode into the freestyle skiing halfpipe, with David Wise, who won the gold medal when the event debuted at the 2014 Sochi Games, and Aaron Blunck, the reigning world champion, among four Americans in the final field of 12.
In the end, the Americans delivered, not a sweep, but a gold and silver dominating performance as New Zealand, in the form of 16-year-old boy, took third.