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THE SLOPES — There are a lot of great things about living in Utah. Among those are the amazing skiing and snowboarding, and resulting from those, the amazing snow-sport tournaments we get to attend.
The FIS World Championships were held at Deer Valley Resort in Park City from Feb. 1-10. World-class athletes from around the world came to our mountains to compete, and many spectators got an amazing show. But those who watched Daichi Hara compete on moguls got a show that likely left them breathless.
Hara is competing against American Bradley Wilson when he loses his balance for a moment. He manges to gain some control right before hitting a jump and throwing a backflip. Hara rotates a bit too much, however, and is headed for a rough landing right on top of his head. Instead of just accepting his fate and hoping his neck is sturdy, Hara tucks and completes another backflip before landing on his feet. Hara wipes out pretty spectacularly on the landing, but crashing on your feet as opposed to your head is a win.
As you watch it in real time, you think it's impressive, but don't really understand what's happening. In the video, they replay it in slow motion, and you can actually see the moment Hara realizes he's in trouble and how he corrects it.
It's not often we applaud a wipeout, but this was an incredible show of athleticism and quick decision-making that we felt we had to show off.