Freeskier Colby Stevenson nabbed a silver medal in the men’s Olympic freestyle skiing big air final Tuesday night, etching his name in local lore by becoming the latest athlete raised in Park City to win hardware at a Winter Games.

The 24-year-old stomped a switch double cork 1800 on his final run to land on the podium in big air skiing’s debut at the Olympics. Birk Ruud of Norway won gold, while Sweden’s Henrik Harlaut finished in third. Stevenson’s American teammates, Parkite Alex Hall and Mac Forehand, landed in eighth and 11th, respectively.

The result was determined by the two best combined scores for each athlete across three runs. Stevenson slipped on his first run but rebounded with scores of 91.75 and 91.25 on his final two runs for a score of 183 overall. He trailed Ruud by 4.75 points.

“You want to land the first jump, it’s really important, because then you get two chances to land another trick,” Stevenson said in a release. “When I didn’t land that first one, I was not discouraged but just more excited, because it was a new trick for me. I was happy I had (a chance) the second time around.”

Stevenson’s silver medal marked his first-ever podium at a big air event — and it happened to come on the biggest stage in winter sports nearly six years since he almost died in a car accident. He suffered a fractured skull among other injuries and was fortunate to not have any permanent brain damage. The Parkite made a remarkable recovery, resumed skiing and won his first World Cup just eight months after the accident.

Now, after a pair of gold medals at the 2020 X Games thrust him into the spotlight, he has cemented his standing as one of the best freeski athletes in the world.

“I’m totally on a cloud. … It’s a miracle I’m on the podium today,” Stevenson said in a release. “It’s a miracle I was able to land that trick. I’m super grateful for everything. It feels like it’s been my whole life, getting to this moment.”

Hall’s bid to win a gold medal at both the X Games and the Olympics just a month apart came up short. Hall missed his grab on his first run and was harshly docked points for it. He followed that up by landing a 1980 with his signature Buick grab. The 23-year-old attempted a 2160, the trick that helped him gold at the X Games on his third run, but he couldn’t stick the landing.

Stevenson’s silver is the first Olympic medal for a homegrown Parkite since 2014, when snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg, freeskier Joss Christensen, alpine skier Ted Ligety and the late bobsledder Steven Holcomb each brought back medals from the Sochi Games.

Stevenson and Hall will be back in action in Beijing in slopestyle. Qualification will be on Sunday at 9:30 p.m. and the finals will be on Monday at 6:30 p.m. Both Hall and Stevenson are contenders to medal in that event as well.

Other results

A pair of Nordic combined skiers who were raised in Park City, Jared Shumate and Stephen Schumann, made their Olympic debuts on Wednesday. Shumate had a top-20 finish in 19th place, while Schumann settled for 25th. Shumate finished the ski jumping portion in 24th but made up for it with the 13th-fastest cross-country skiing time.

“My jumping wasn’t quite as good as I would have hoped for today, but I felt that I had a pretty solid race,” Shumate said in a release. “I had a goal set to get top 20 in the Olympics at the start of this season, and I’m happy to have accomplished that. Starting off the Games with a 19th overall finish is pretty satisfying.”