kaitlyn farrington a former barrel racer bucked snowboardings longestablished order by winning the womens halfpipe creditjames hill for the new york timesfeb 12 2014krasnaya polyana russia the cattle auctions were on wednesdays kaitlyn farrington remembered on the ranch near bellevue idaho before she left for school she and her father would load a cow maybe two into the back of a trailer attached to the pickup truck gary farrington drove about 40 miles south to shoshone and made the sale maybe 1000 a head kaitlyn was a teenager then and the money was needed to support her burgeoning snowboarding career one by one now and again the herd dwindled over the years now it is gone entirely in its place is a gold medal farrington a horseriding snowboarder a former barrel racer with a pair of piercings in her nose and a quick giggle in her voice bucked snowboardings longestablished order by winning the womens halfpipe event wednesday at the sochi games no one expected it including the winner farrington had hoped merely to earn a spot in the 12woman final instead by the narrowest of margins she beat the last three olympic gold medalists torah bright the 2010 champion won silver kelly clark the 2002 champion won bronze hannah teter the 2006 champion was knocked to fourthi cant believe i was sitting there in front of the last three gold medalists farrington said its crazygary farrington and suz locke kaitlyns parents celebrated in the front row of the crowd at the rosa khutor extreme park the mother held a photograph of her smiling daughter kaitlyn farrington cowgirl up it read she credited kaitlyns balance in part to riding horses since she was 3 unbelievable gary farrington said and he repeated it as he both cried and laughed his daughter had just beaten the three most accomplished female halfpipe riders in historywe knew she had the possibility gary farrington said the phone in his pocket buzzing with congratulatory messages she had the tricks she had them all in her bag she could do anything and look what just happenedthe judges struggled to dissect the performances and put them in order farrington took the lead midway through the second and final run with a smooth and sturdy string of tricks including a switch back 720 a backside 900 and an alleyoop 540 she scored 9175 points out of 100 for the run narrowly leapfrogging the 9050 posted by teter farrington thrilled by her performance in her first olympics smiled and danced as she waited to see if others could top her by the time it came down to the final two competitors she had clinched a medal of some color bright an australian who lives in salt lake city just a couple of blocks from where farrington now lives earned a 9150 wedging herself between farrington and teter the three of them huddled at the bottom of the pipe clark had the final word it was fitting and an echo from