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Feb. 6 (UPI) — The United States won its second Beijing Olympics medal after Jaelin Kauf took silver in the finals for the women’s moguls event on Sunday.
“Set your alarms people. It’s gonna be an early morning, but we’ll make it worth it for all y’all’s back home,” she said in a post to Instagram before the event.
Kauf’s second-place finish came after teammate Julia Marino also took silver in the women’s slopestyle snowboarding event.
“Oh my god, I’m just so happy right now. I honestly can’t believe it,” Kauf told ESPN after the event. “I put it out there tonight, and I’m so happy. I can’t believe I am on the podium.”
The moguls event is judged based on the skier’s time to complete the course and technical abilities in performing jumps and turns. Kauf completed the course in 26.37 seconds with an air score of 15.10 and a turns score of 46.9 for a total score of 80.28.
Australian Jakara Anthony won the gold medal with a total score of 83.09 despite her slower time of 27.63 seconds. Anastasiia Smirnova of Russia earned the bronze with a score of 77.72 while Perrine Laffont of France, who won the gold medal in the 2018 Winter Olympics, scored just behind her with a score of 77.36.
Kauf, who had competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics but finished seventh, is the daughter of Patti Kauf-Melehes and Scott Kauf — two professional skiers who had previously competed in the pro mogul tour.
“I was thinking about it going up the lift — ‘Oh my God, I’m going up for the medal round!'” she told Yahoo! Sports. “As I was getting closer to being in the gate, I was telling myself what I had been telling myself all day: ‘This is your day. Leave it all out there. Have fun and attack.’ And that’s just what I did.”