{"id":42700,"date":"2022-01-14T23:10:48","date_gmt":"2022-01-15T06:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-skier-mcquinn-recovering-after-fall-in-world-cup-final\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:08:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:08:44","slug":"durango-skier-mcquinn-recovering-after-fall-in-world-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-skier-mcquinn-recovering-after-fall-in-world-cup-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango skier McQuinn recovering after fall in World Cup final"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Medical
Medical officials assist George McQuinn after he crashed Thursday at the end of a run in the finals of a World Cup freestyle moguls competition at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo\/Rick Bowmer)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Everything was going right for George McQuinn on Thursday in Deer Valley, Utah, in the FIS World Cup freestyle skiing competition, which was serving as one of Team USA\u2019s final Olympic qualifiers.<\/p>\n

In the round of 16<\/a>, McQuinn threw a corked 1080 on the top jump, kept his knees together as he flew through the moguls and then tossed another spinning flip with his signature wacky-daffy grab on the bottom jump. McQuinn stomped the landing and flew through the finish line in 24.33 seconds, scoring a 80.03 that bumped him into the lead.<\/p>\n

McQuinn led most of the round and was the only skier from Team USA to reach Thursday\u2019s six-man super final, qualifying in third place.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe definitely represented yesterday,\u201d said Kirk Rawles, who coached McQuinn in Durango when he was younger and is the brother of McQuinn\u2019s coach, Scott Rawles. \u201cTo qualify third behind the greatest skier of all-time (Canada\u2019s Mikael Kingsbury) is definitely something he\u2019ll remember for the rest of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The United States' George McQuinn competes in a World Cup freestyle moguls competition at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah, on Thursday. (AP Photo\/Rick Bowmer)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In the super final, everything changed.<\/a><\/p>\n

McQuinn started the run by landing a cork-1080 on the top jump and then attacked the moguls. Right before the bottom jump, however, a mogul bucked McQuinn, sending him upside down. McQuinn hit his head on the jump and went limp, flying upside down through the air and landing on his head. The crowd went silent as he slid to the bottom of the run, not moving.<\/p>\n

\"George
George McQuinn crashes at the end of a run in the finals of a World Cup freestyle moguls competition Thursday at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo\/Rick Bowmer)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Kirk Rawles, who talked with coach Scott Rawles and McQuinn\u2019s father, Michael McQuinn, said he was \u201cdoing fine\u201d Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was conscious in the finish area and knew where he was,\u201d Kirk Rawles said. \u201cA good sign is he was mad that that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Team USA doctor at the event also worked in the emergency room at the hospital where McQuinn was taken, so he received immediate care and was observed through the night, Kirk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he was very lucky,\u201d Kirk Rawles said.<\/p>\n

The competition resumed after about 15 minutes. Kingsbury, the defending Olympic champion, skiing next.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis one is for him,\u201d Kingsbury told the Salt Lake Tribune.<\/a> \u201cI know this was his first super final. He\u2019s an exciting skier with a bright future. I just hope he\u2019s OK and we get to ski in a super final in the future together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kingsbury won the event with a 83.28 for his World Cup victory No. 100. Japan\u2019s Ikuma Horishima finished second (81.98), Japan\u2019s Kosuke Sugiemoto placed third (79.02), Sweden\u2019s Ludvig Fjallstrom placed fourth (77.28), Australia\u2019s Cooper Woods finished fifth (76.10) and McQuinn finished sixth (29.12).<\/p>\n

McQuinn, however, wasn\u2019t the only skier who crashed on Deer Valley\u2019s Championship run. Two U.S. male skiers, Cole McDonald and Joel Hedrick, did not finish while Nick Page did not start after crashing in a practice run. In the women\u2019s final, the U.S. skiers didn\u2019t ski clean either, with Olivia Giaccio placing fifth with a 49.84 and Elizabeth Lemley finishing sixth with a 35.62.<\/p>\n

\"United
United States' George McQuinn holds his skis after a run in the finals of a World Cup freestyle moguls competition at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022. (AP Photo\/Rick Bowmer)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThis course is one of the toughest in the world, and it took a toll on the U.S. team,\u201d Kirk said, calling it steep and filled with huge bumps. \u201cThe course probably won yesterday for the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of the finals\u2019 timing, the light had also started to get flat while the snow started to crisp over, adding to the challenge.<\/p>\n

A second World Cup competition took place Friday at Deer Creek, which is the final Team USA Olympic qualifier, but McQuinn was unable to compete. Now he\u2019ll just have to wait and see if his super final qualifying performance was enough to earn him a spot for Team USA in the Olympics.<\/p>\n

McQuinn also competed at World Cup events in Mont-Tremblant, Canada, this January where he finished 29th and then 19th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McQuinn qualified in third place, was knocked unconscious on final run<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85429,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42700\/revisions\/85429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42700"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}