Sunday, January 30, 2005
Extra: Tanner Talks
ESPN
Shortly after his second-place finish in Ski Slopestyle finals, Tanner Hall sat down with ESPN to talk candidly about his displeasure with the outcome of the event, his missed four-peat and why silver sometimes isn't enough.
Q: Tell me what happened.
A: I was going for my fourth gold medal in Slopestyle, and fifth if you count the Big Air event before. I put together the run of my life. Did a trick on the rail that I had never done before, the 450 on the backside 270 out. Right after I landed that, I was like 'it's on.' There was one guy left, Charles Gagnier. You know, much respect, he's a great skier. Don't get me wrong. I'm super happy with second place.
I got ecstatic, but when you have a whole bunch of people coming up and saying, 'Oh, I think you got robbed,' it makes it harder, especially when you're going for your fourth and could have made X Games history. It makes you feel that you got robbed little bit. But now I've gotta tell you what, the fire is inside to win my first gold medal in the pipe, so that's what I'm looking forward to.
Q: Was the three-peat pressure or a confidence-builder?
A: There's a little bit more pressure because I was thinking about that a lot, four-peat, four-peat. It was always in my mind. But up after the first run, I was skiing that course pretty well. But sometimes it goes the way you want to and sometimes it doesn't. I'm super stoked because it was a great day for skiing. The level is getting better every year. It's actually looking like a legit sport, ya know
Q: This was probably the biggest run for your money yet. CR had a good run, Dumont had a good run. Tell me about the other people.
A: Like I said, everybody came up and said I got robbed. When I heard CR's score and Dumont's score, I was like, What? Are you kidding me? Simon is definitely not skiing at a sixth place or a fourth place, and neither is CR. When the two kids who got robbed come up to you, and their just shaking their heads, like, What's going on? It's just, (sigh) ...
Q: Tell me what it was like to come down in that finish corral.
A: It was great to stomp that last 1080 and look around and see hands in the air and hear the crowd roar.
Q: Tell me how much it hurts not to get the four-peat.
A: It doesn't hurt, it sucks. It sucks because you know, hey, Charles Gagnier won for sure. His skiing was undeniable and his run was perfect. But when I come down through the finish area and everyone's saying 'that's the run', and he comes down and they're saying 'don't worry about it', it makes it tougher.
Q: Tell me about the medal ceremony.
A: Well, the one good thing was I didn't have to walk up as high as I had to before. I was stoked to be up there with my boy Jon Ollsen and Charles Gagnier for his first Winter X Games gold medal. That was really cool. I might have not showed him much emotion on the podium because it sucks getting second place.
Q: So you taking this to Pipe?
A: I'm so stoked. I wanna be right back on top. Yeah, take all that aggression out on the pipe, for sure.
SKI FOR LIFE!
If it was easy it would be called snowboarding.
WHITEWATER
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