Norway’s Ruud wins Olympic gold year after father’s death
By JAKE SEINER
AP Sports Writer
BEIJING (AP) — Birk Ruud of Norway spun away with a gold medal in the Olympics’ first men’s freestyle skiing big air event to re-emerge as a leader in the extreme sport after losing his father to cancer and injuring his knee. The men put on another impressive show at Big Air Shougang a day after Eileen Gu’s gold medal temporarily broke Chinese social media site Weibo. Ruud has two Winter X Games big air gold medals and four World Cup wins but only one since 2019. The 21-year-old’s father died of cancer last April and Ruud has said the loss pulled his mind away from competitive skiing.