Freestyle Skiing at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games:

The heavy favorite was Kari Traa (NOR), the 1998 bronze medalist. Traa had once been quite heavy, but in late 1999, committed herself to losing weight and began training very hard. She was the top mogul skier in the world in the next two years, and in 2001-02 had won all but one World Cup event coming into Salt Lake City. That event had been won by American Shannon Bahrke, who was fortunate to be skiing at all. In mid-1999 Bahrke came down staph sepsis, and was treated with six weeks of intravenous antibiotics. She recovered at the end of 2000 and won her first US title in 2001. The qualifying saw no surprises with both Traa and Bahrke getting thru easily, as Traa led the round. Bahrke was an early leader in the final, as she had qualified fifth, but Traa was the last skier, and her flawless run brought her the gold medal. The 1998 champion, Tae Satoya of Japan, won the bronze medal after qualifying sixth. A major surprise was the fourth-place finisher, the unheralded 18-year-old Canadian, Jennifer Heil. But much more would be heard from her, and in 2006 she would win the gold medal in this event.