Beijing Winter Olympics 2022: Ben Barclay finishes 10th in men's freestyle skiing slopestyle final

Ben Barclay of New Zealand reacts after his run. Photo / Getty

On borrowed skis and sore knees, Kiwi freeskier Ben Barclay fell short in his bid to add to New Zealand's Winter Games medal tally, missing out on a spot on the podium in the men's slopestyle final.

Barclay, who qualified seventh in the 12-strong final, had his struggles on the course and was only able to complete one of his three runs, with his best score of 67.40 seeing him finish in 10th place.

"Definitely happy to land it," Barclay said after the final. "It wasn't executed how I wanted to so I'm definitely a bit bummed. I exceeded my expectations to get to even be here today, so at the end of the day I'm stoked.

"It was just that second jump on all three runs; on some of the runs I couldn't quite get the speed, others I didn't quite have to power to get the spin all the way around.

"I got it in practice. It was the first time I had done it and laced that run so I was really happy, but just couldn't quite figure it out when it came down to it.

"Everyone in that start gate has been an idol of mine for many years, and everyone's just great buddies with each other. I mean, I'm borrowing one of the other competitors' skis today because I broke mine yesterday.

"It goes to show the comradery between us; even though it's the Olympics, it's still not really a hard competition between everyone. Everyone still just wishes the best for all the other competitors and we're all just good mates at the end of the day having a good time skiing."

Ben Barclay in action during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Photo / Getty Images

Barclay, who had been competing with a knee injury, said he didn't believe the issue impacted him as the adrenaline of the event took his mind away from it.

"I just couldn't quite put it down when it mattered, but that happens in sport sometimes I suppose. At the end of the day, I'm still really happy."

Barclay, 20, impressed in qualification yesterday as he nailed both of his runs down the mountain with scores above the 75.00 mark. However, in the final, the second jump in the run proved to be something of a bump in the road for the young Kiwi as he was twice unable to stick the landing from the obstacle.

On his third and final run in the event, Barclay managed to stomp a complete run, but the score wasn't enough to lift him into the medal positions.

American Alexander Hall claimed gold with a 90.01 scored in his opening run. Fellow American Nicholas Goepper took the silver medal with a score of 86.48, while Sweden's Jesper Tjader (85.35) rounded out the podium.