Team USA snowboarder who won gold despite oversleeping set to compete for second Olympic medal
Ellie Kemp
Featured Image Credit: David Ramos/Getty Images
Red Gerard is preparing to win Team USA another Olympic medal as he hits the slopes today.
The snowboarder was shocked to win his first medal - a gold, no less - during the 2018 Pyeongchang games.
The then-17-year-old had stayed up the night before the big slopestyle final, as the New York Times reports, having binged Brooklyn Nine-Nine on Netflix with a friend.
He then managed to oversleep and quickly scrambled to the final.
Advert
Despite the unexpected rush, Gerard soared from 11th place to first on his final run, winning gold by more than a whole point.
“It was awesome,” Gerard said after becoming the youngest American to win a snowboarding gold medal.
“I just told myself that I wanted to land a run, and I was a little bummed on my first two runs because I fell a couple of times.
“I’m just so happy that it all worked out.”
He returned for the 2022 Beijing Olympics, narrowly missing out on a medal when he placed fourth.
Gerard has once again qualified for the slopestyle finals in the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics and will be vying for a medal once more.
He squeezed through, qualifying in 11th place out of 12th. Could this be a repeat of 2018, though?
He'll face off against Canada's Mark McMorris, who is a triple Olympic medallist and landed bronze in the 2018 games, as well as New Zealand's Dane Menzies, who is just 20 years old, Marcus Kleveland of Norway and China's Su Yiming.
Gerard began snowboarding at around age two and has since competed at multiple major events, including the X Games and World Cup circuits, where he’s earned multiple podiums.
The men's final takes place this morning (Wednesday February 18) between 5.20 and 6.50 am ET.
The action unfolds at Livigno Snow Park, Valtellina, in Milan, Italy.
It will air on the USA Network as well as Peacock.
At the time of writing, Team USA has earned 21 medals during the Milano Cortina Olympic Games, ranking them in third place overall.
The majority of those, 10, are silver, while six are gold and five are bronze.
Norway is leading the medal table, having won 31 medals overall, including 14 golds, 8 silvers and 9 bronzes.
Host nation Italy sits second, with 24 total medals (9 gold, 4 silver, 11 bronze), bolstered by strong performances across sliding and skating sports.