FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
S PORTS
A5
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THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
SNOWBOARDING
NFL
ALPINE SKIING
Hirano lands first
triple cork 1440
COPPER MOUNTAIN,
Colo. — The next big leap
in snowboarding went
down Sunday on a sun-
splashed halfpipe in Col-
orado with a trick that set
the stakes for the gold-
medal race to Beijing.
Japanese snowboard
star Ayumu Hirano fin-
ished fifth at the Dew
Tour, but his spot in the
standings hardly mat-
tered. What did was that
he became the first per-
son to land the difficult,
dangerous and once
unthinkable triple-cork
jump in competition.
“It’s just a game-
changer because the
level of halfpipe riding
has gotten so crazy,” said
snowboarding commen-
tator Jonathan “DC” Oet-
ken, who was at the bot-
tom of the pipe Sunday.
Ayumu, the two-time
Olympic silver medalist,
pulled off what’s officially
called a frontside triple
cork 1440, a jump that
involves three head-over-
heels flips with a twist
while grabbing the board
above the 22-foot-high
halfpipe.
Ayumu’s history-mak-
ing jump at the top of
the pipe made him wob-
bly in the setup to the
next trick. He fell on it
and didn’t finish the run,
which accounted for the
fifth-place finish. But
there was no denying
that in a sport that trea-
sures progression over
practically everything
else, his jump will be
the buzz of the halfpipe
world as the sport makes
its way to the Olympics,
and probably beyond.
“This is crazy,” said Ayu-
mu’s Japanese teammate,
Yuto Totsuka, who won
the contest. “I will make
sure (to have it in) the
next competition.”
All the top Japanese
riders, including Totsuka
and Sunday’s third-place
finisher, Ruka Hirano,
have been working on
the trick in practice. Who-
ever lands it best, or at
all, could be wearing a
gold medal around their
neck come Feb. 11 in the
mountains above Beijing.
Is Shaun White in that
mix? Hard to tell.
Though the three-time
Olympic champion has
worked on the trick over
time, he also has aban-
doned it before, feeling
it was too dangerous to
pull off in a high-stakes
contest.
White was nowhere
near thinking about triple
corks on Sunday. A bro-
ken binding ruined his
first run and he fell on the
first jump of his second.
He executed back-to-
back 1260-degree jumps
for the first time this
season, but he finished
seventh.
“I was fighting an up-
hill battle,” White said. “I
was just so happy to get a
good run down.”
He heads into the last
Olympic qualifying con-
test, next month at Mam-
moth Mountain, Califor-
nia, without the podium
finish that would give
him an automatic spot on
the U.S. team. Even with-
out that, he would almost
certainly make the team
as a coaches’ pick, but
the clock is ticking on the
35-year-old who is saying
this will be his final Olym-
pic journey.
Another American,
Taylor Gold, finished sec-
ond thanks to the sort of
stylistic run, filled with
difficult grabs and spins,
that makes snowboard-
ing purists drool, even if
it doesn’t include the sky-
high tricks that capture
the headlines.
—Associated Press
Radamus makes an
impact on World Cup
Once a junior sensation, the U.S. skier has three top-10 finishes in giant slalom races
Seahawks’
late-season
playoff push
is up against
Rams’ surge
BY GREG BEACHAM
Associated Press
Gabriele Facciotti/AP
U.S. skier River
Radamus speeds down
the course during a
men’s World Cup giant
slalom in Alta Badia,
Italy, on Sunday.
BY ANDREW DAMPF • Associated Press
L
A VILLA, Italy — There’s nothing easy
about evolving from a top junior skier
into a World Cup contender.
Just ask River Radamus, the Colorado racer
He also placed sixth in the season-opening
giant slalom in Sölden, Austria, in October.
“Any time you can come here and put two
runs together it feels good. I love this hill
who won three golds at the 2016 Winter Youth
and getting sixth here is huge for me,” said
Olympics and four medals (two golds and two
Radamus, who placed fourth in the opening
silvers) at the junior world championships
leg with the No. 18 bib. “It’s definitely a step in
from 2017-2019.
the right direction. I take the points, take the
The 23-year-old Radamus has been pushing
result and I keep going forward.”
his body to the limit this season, though, and
The Gran Risa has everything that a giant
the results are starting to come — just in time
slalom should offer: steep pitches that wind
for the Beijing Olympics in February.
through the woods at the start, 180-degree
Radamus matched his career-best World
turns and even built-in rolls and flatter terrain
Cup result by skiing through pain in his lower
toward the finish that sometimes result in
right leg to finish sixth in the demanding Alta
small jumps.
Badia giant slalom on Sunday. He then finished
10th in another GS race on Monday for his
It’s a long course, too, leaving racers winded
toward the finish.
third top-10 finish in four GS races this season.
See Radamus / A7
INGLEWOOD, Calif.
— Quandre Diggs lined up
against Matthew Stafford ev-
ery day in practice for 4 1/2
seasons in Detroit, so the Se-
attle safety knows a little more
about the tendencies and tal-
ents of Los Angeles’ quarter-
back than his teammates.
“That’s my guy,” said Diggs,
the leading Pro Bowl vote-get-
ter among NFC free safeties.
“He’s going to try to attack me,
and I’m going to try and get
him.”
The Seahawks (5-8) will take
every little edge they can get
when they travel to SoFi Sta-
dium on Tuesday (moved from
Sunday due to COVID-19 out-
breaks) for an NFC West show-
down with the Rams (9-4) that
could prove vital to both teams’
playoff hopes.
Seattle is clinging to hope
of a late-season surge back
into postseason contention af-
ter its 3-8 start to the season.
Back-to-back wins have kept
the Seahawks alive for their
10th consecutive winning re-
cord under coach Pete Car-
roll, but a loss in Inglewood
would end that streak — and
could prove insurmountable
in the crowded NFC playoff
picture.
“According to the outside,
we were out of it two weeks
ago, and it doesn’t matter what
we’ve done the last two weeks,”
Diggs said. “We’re still 5-8. ...
We’re comfortable with the un-
comfortable. Right now we’re
in an uncomfortable situation,
so we’ve got to make do.”
Meanwhile, the Rams have
also put together back-to-back
victories after a three-game
winless November, securing
their fifth straight winning
season under Sean McVay —
something this franchise hadn’t
done in more than four de-
cades.
They’re leading the wild-
card playoff standings while
keeping pressure on NFC West
leader Arizona (10-3) with four
games to go, but every game
left on Los Angeles’ schedule
looks difficult.
Seattle would never qual-
ify as an easy game — even
though the Rams have won
seven of the rivals’ past nine
meetings, including games at
Lumen Field in last year’s play-
offs and again last October.
The Seahawks haven’t even
scored 20 points in their past
five meetings with the Rams.
See Seahawks / A7
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
New Oregon QB Bo Nix has ties to Dillingham
BY JAMES CREPEA
The Oregonian
EUGENE — Oregon is add-
ing a veteran quarterback from
the SEC.
Bo Nix, the former Au-
burn quarterback who began
his college career by beating
the Ducks in the 2019 season
opener, announced he’s trans-
ferring to Oregon.
The 6-foot-3, 214-pound
Nix just finished his third-
year sophomore season at Au-
burn, where he completed a
career-high 61% of his throws
for 2,294 yards with 11 touch-
downs and three interceptions
and ran for 168 yards and four
scores in 10 games before suf-
fering a fractured ankle.
Oregon offensive coordi-
nator Kenny Dillingham was
in the same role at Auburn
in 2019, when Nix won SEC
Freshman of the Year.
Last week, Nix explained
his decision to transfer from
Auburn, where his father, Pat,
also played quarterback, and
what he would be seeking in a
new team.
“I think when you look at
it from afar the main thing
is is to go somewhere that
needs a quarterback and can
kind of make ends meet to
what a great team is going to
look like,” Nix said during his
weekly appearance on The
JBoy Show. “I’m excited to
go and find a new team that
is eager to continue to have
success and I would like to
go into a place to where, like
I said, they’re just missing a
quarterback to the piece of the
puzzle for them to be really
good. With that being said, it’s
not everywhere — not every-
where needs a quarterback.
There’s a lot of places out there
with great quarterbacks and
then there’s a lot of guys that
are about to land great quar-
terbacks, a lot of guys like me
in the transfer portal that are
good and going to go and play
somewhere.
See Nix / A7
Ron Jenkins/AP file
Auburn quarterback Bo Nix (10) throws downfield against Oregon
during a 2019 game in Arlington, Texas. Nix announced late Sunday
that he is transferring to Oregon.