It was 3:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, and as the rest of Park City was asleep, the parents of moguls skier Nick Page were on pins and needles. The 15-hour time difference between Park City and Beijing meant that Page was going to ski the biggest run of his life in the middle of the night. Nervous energy reverberated around the Pages’ living room.
Just two days prior, the 19-year-old Parkite had struggled in the first round of qualification at the Olympics. The top 10 in the 30-man field automatically moved on, but Page had a few bobbles and ended up in 21st, putting him in a do-or-die situation in Saturday’s last-chance qualifier.
His parents, Mike and Sheri Page, and a group of friends that included U.S. aerials athlete Dani Loeb and former moguls skier Sho Kashima huddled around the television and hoped for the best. One run separated survival from the abrupt end of Page’s Olympic journey.
He put together a much stronger run from the top of the course to the bottom, with a couple of flashy jumps and minimal mistakes in between. Mike wrapped his fingers on the back of the couch, worrying about a turn that his son bobbled on. It’s tough to feel comfortable until the judges give their verdict.
“It’s going to be agony of defeat or kiss and cry in a moment,” Mike said as they awaited Page’s score.
All of the pent-up anxiety from the previous two days disappeared as soon as Page’s score of 77.36 flashed on the screen — that was more than good enough to qualify for the finals. The Page household exploded with a combination of cheers, hugs, high-fives and a couple of expletives. Even Rusty, the Pages’ canine companion, jumped up and down in excitement.
Nick Page qualifies for the finals with a 77.36, and his friends and family are *pumped* pic.twitter.com/9hNO5bkbN9
— Brendan Farrell (@Bfarrell727) February 5, 2022
After that, there was nothing to do but wait for the 20-man final. Page was playing with house money at that point as far as his parents were concerned.
Moguls skiing is a difficult sport, and it’s excruciating to watch. There’s no margin of error — one botched turn in a run full of them can ruin the whole thing. Runs only last as long as 25 seconds, but it’s always tense until the skier reaches the bottom of the course.
When it’s the Olympics and it’s your son competing in the finals for a medal, it’s not easy to watch from home from halfway across the world.
“It is a razor’s edge on every turn that happens and every score that comes up, you just don’t know,” Mike said. “And then you wonder, will it hold? Will someone do a little less? And certainly that intensity is what’s so exciting about moguls skiing and why we love it so much. But then add in that one of them is your son, it adds in a level that is hard to describe.”
And then his run at the Olympics kept going and going. Page moved into the top 12 in the first finals round to advance. Page was the third skier to go in the next round and needed a top-six finish to move on to the medal round. His 76.92 was solid but not good enough to feel safe about staying alive. It was only when Japan’s Kosuke Sugimoto and Daichi Hara failed to unseat Page in fifth place with only one skier left that the thought of him competing for a medal started to sink in. He snuck into the medal round as the sixth and final skier.
The underdog story ended there, as Page finished fifth in the end. But he sent his parents on the emotional roller coaster ride of a lifetime.
“It went in steps,” Mike said. “OK, could he get out of (qualifying) and just get to 20, could he get to the final? Then he got the final, and then could he get to 12? When they get to 12, could he get to six? Yeah, every step was really exciting and really thrilling and again, just super proud of him.”
At the Page household, bottles of champagne were popped, drinks were had and toasts were made in his honor, despite it still being pretty early in the morning.
“Four runs, had to come from the basement, had to come from Qualifier 1, where one edge, one turn, one bobble, one minute mistake sends you home, against the best in the world,” Mike said. “For that to have happened in four rounds and for us to be able to watch that over and over again, just thrilling.”
Mike and Sheri had some comfort knowing that Page was in the right headspace heading into the final round of qualification, but there were no guarantees that it would go as well as it did.
“I was nervous at first, but then after texting back and forth with Nick, he had such a good perspective on it that he actually put me at ease,” Sheri said. “I was just hoping that he would get to that top 20, and I would have been happy. It ended up so much better than what I had dreamed, for sure.”
There was also a sense of gratitude from the Pages. Sure, Page didn’t come back with a medal, but finishing fifth at the Olympics at the age of 19 is a major accomplishment nonetheless.
“Amazingly proud of him, beyond just being our son, that you could see a young person have his dreams come true,” Mike said. “It happened today. He didn’t medal, but he was amazing. When you see anybody who has a dream that wants to go forward and stick to it and then it somewhat comes true was really amazing.”
More difficult for Mike and Sheri than figuring out how to get some sleep between the pre-event anxiety and the 3 a.m. start time was being on the other side of the world from their son. It was the biggest moment of his life, and they couldn’t be there in person to cheer him on and support him.
“When we’re together, I always get this huge hug at the bottom of the hill,” Sheri said. “I do miss that, but we do have our text thing going on when he’s away.”
The Pages wouldn’t get a call from their son for a few more hours, but they did get the opportunity to at least say hello. NBC set up a video call between Page and his family live on national television so that he could see his friends and family.
“The biggest thing: thank you,” he said. “Thanks to the two of you, thanks to everyone watching at home, you guys are the best. I wouldn’t be here without you. Love you.”
For the Pages, it wasn’t a substitute for being there in person and embracing their son after the biggest moment of his skiing life, but it would have to do.