Team USA is up a silver medal after Friday night's big air snowboarding competition, and it can thank "Bloody Dracula."
Twenty-year-old Kyle Mack used that trick, his own, self-named variation of a front-side 1440, along with a backside double clutch to claim second place for the U.S. in the high-octane competition, which made its debut at the Winter Olympics this year in Pyeongchang.
Kyle Mack wins his first Olympic medal, a #silver in snowboard big air! #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/NOKEa0Vr7U
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 24, 2018
Congrats to @_KyleMack on winning his first Olympic medal (silver) in the men's snowboarding big air final! (Photo by Getty Images) pic.twitter.com/jZbTD4Cawj
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 24, 2018
Mack's 168.75 total points over three runs bested the 168 compiled by Great Britain's Billy Morgan, who earned bronze. But it was the "Bloody Dracula" that quickly became the talk of the youngster's Winter Games debut.
BLOODY. DRACULA.@_KyleMack lands one of the coolest-named tricks, a frontside 1440 Bloody Dracula, to earn #silver for @TeamUSA! #WinterOlympics https://t.co/nZf7QVVztK pic.twitter.com/nN2pVvHsHc
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 24, 2018
Two of Mack's U.S. teammates could've joined him on the podium if not for either a slow start or late crash, too.
Seventeen-year-old phenom Red Gerard, who took gold in slopestyle during his Olympic debut, landed all three of his runs but had to climb out of a 34-point hole against Canadian gold medalist Sebastien Toutant after a 65.5-point second try, which ultimately left him in fifth place. And Chris Corning, an 18-year-old Winter X Games star, went big with an attempted backside quad 1800 on his final jump but couldn't stick his landing, ending with 153 total points in fourth place.
Corning wasn't the only one to crash upon coming down, either, as the big air event was dotted with some landings as intense as the competition's close finish. Two of the 12 snowboarders who qualified opted either not to participate in a third and final run or stop altogether after opening-run falls.
Entering the contest, two other Canadians, Mark McMorris and Max Parrot, were considered consensus favorites after teaming up to win medals in the men's slopestyle earlier in the Games. Both owned reputations for big air, with Parrot especially figuring to draw eyes thanks to his trick experimentation.