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In thrilling run, Japanese moguls skier nearly pulls off double backflip (w/video)

Brad Wilson crashed in epic fashion in the single moguls on Friday, but if he felt embarrassed about his run, he could rest easy after racing Daichi Hara of Japan in the dual moguls quarterfinals.

Hara came screaming into the bottom jump against Wilson, and aired it out into a double backflip for perhaps 60 feet of air before crashing calamitously to the ground near the bottom of the run. He hit his face, disheveling his goggles and helmet, and emerged looking like a man who had just lost a fight he didn’t know was coming.

For his double backflip, he received a did-not-finish – double flips are against the rules.



But the crowd cheered for Hara as his replay flashed across the outdoor monitor beside the course set to the theme song of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.



The camera followed him as he went through one backflip fully extended, then tucked in for a second rotation, and finally exploded in a cloud of snow and gear, ragdolling into the finish area.

It was a brush with disaster and injury for Hara.

But if he had landed it, what would that have meant for the sport? Could the performance have been akin to Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley famously pulling off the dinner roll in the 2002 Winter Games? The move essentially forced the FIS to change the sport’s rules to allow inversions.

Characteristically, Moseley said after Saturday’s competition that he is in favor of seeing the sport accept more dynamic airs.

“In single World Cup moguls, doubles and twisting doubles, double corks, whatever, should (definitely) be allowed as long as they add an overall impression judge so that creativity and context can be rewarded,” Moseley told The Park Record via social media. “I think it should be restricted at the junior and the NorAm level. I’m conflicted a bit on duals. It does scare me a bit.”

As for Hara, the Japanese racer returned to the course, and in a gutsy return to the horse that bucked him, defeated Walter Wallberg of Sweden in the small finals for third place.


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