Aerials, Men

The favorite was Canada’s Nicolas Fontaine, who had won the 1997 World Championship and was leading the World Cup in 1997-98. Also considered was American Eric Bergoust, who in 1997 had won his first World Cup event. Both made it thru qualifying, but did not come up to their usual standard, with Bergoust fourth and Fontaine eighth, as the qualifying was led by Belarus’s Dmitry Dashchinsky. Practicing before the final, Bergoust sustained a bad crash, landing on his chest and it was not clear if he could continue. But he elected to try to compete. In the opening round of the final, Bergoust scored 133.05 on a back full-double full-full (bFdFF), considered the highest ever for single jump, which put him well into the lead over France’s Sébastien Foucras, with Fontaine third. Bergoust’s second jump, a back double full-full-full (bdFFF) gave him 255.64 points, a new world’s best for the moguls, breaking Fontaine’s best mark. Fontaine fell on his landing in the second round and finished only 10th. Bergoust had competed at the 1994 Winter Olympics, finishing seventh, and would compete again in 2002 and 2006, but with less success.