Deer Valley Dual Moguls World Cup has USA’s Kauf, Marcellini, Giaccio on the podium

Jaelin Kauf, Jakara Anthony of Australia and Olivia Giaccio on the podium after the Intermountain Health Freestyle World Cup Dual Moguls at Deer Valley Resort on Feb. 3, 2024 in Park City, Utah. Photo: @dustinsatloff // @usskiteam

PARK CITY, Utah — On the third and final day of the 26th annual Deer Valley Freestyle World Cup, the men and women Dual Moguls athletes eliminated the international field down to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team’s Jaelin Kauf, Olivia Giaccio and Dylan Marcellini from Deer Valley’s Wasatch Freestyle on the podium.

For the women, Jakara Anthony from Australia came in first, Olympic medalist Jaelin Kauf came in second, and Olivia Giaccio from the USA came in third. Giaccio won the Singles Moguls on Thursday night.

They all started the night in rounds of 64, down to eliminated 32, then 16, then 8, a quarterfinal and a final.

On the men’s side, first place went to Japan’s Ikuma Horishima, second to Benjamin Cavet from France, and third to Dylan Marcellini. Nick Page, who grew up in Park City, finished fourth.

Watch the snow falling during one of Page’s final runs below against fellow American and Wasatch Freestyle teammate Charlie Mickel.

Page wrote on Facebook, “WHAT A NIGHT! It’s so special to compete @deervalleyresort – nothing compares to this feeling. To all the fans screaming and cheering for me: THANK YOU and PS, I hope you liked my bottom jump #cork1440“

Each maneuver in moguls is assigned a specific degree of difficulty score. The air scores for both jumps are then added together to get the total air score. Skiers must perform different maneuvers on each jump for both jumps to count toward their score. 

Park City’s Alli Macuga told people listening to Wed. night’s live-streamed press conference that she was glad to have been medically cleared from a broken finger. Unfortunately, on Sat., in the round of 16, she crashed off the second jump. 

Watch the sequence of short videos below, which show Macuga leaving the starting gate, crashing, laying temporarily motionless, Ski Team staff and Deer Valley Ski Patrol running to her rescue, her standing up and crossing the finish line before showing spectacular sportsmanship then sitting down on the snow.

https://youtu.be/NTd9kjEPJmE

Amy Macuga, Alli’s mom, told TownLift, “She’ll be okay. More than anything, she didn’t want to disappoint all these hometown friends and fans who came out tonight to support her and who she’s so appreciative of. Her finger may have gotten reinjured in the fall. We’ll have to see later tonight if that was the case. We hope not. I’m really proud of her for this whole World Cup.”

Starting in the morning, the Champion run will be open only to the Wasatch Freestyle developing athletes of Park City, who will take full advantage of the rare opportunity to train on World Cup-level shovel-shaped bumps. They’ll then host a regional competition before the run eventually gets opened to the public.

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