the night before when in the mens competition shaun white had an allornothing chance to win his uncharacteristically clumsy descent left him in fourthimagecreditjames hill for the new york timeslike white clark has been a dominant force for years she won the gold medal at the 2002 salt lake games finished fourth at the 2006 turin games and won a bronze medal at the 2010 olympics in vancouver since then she has won nearly every halfpipe contest she entered including all four gold medals at the x games since 2011but something was off wednesday clark fell on every practice run and near the end of the first of two runs in the finals attempting a cab 720 she landed hard on the lip of the 22foottall halfpipe she bounced backward into the void landing bottomside first the crowd went silent but clark was back at the top of the pipe minutes later given a chance to win she tried a 1080 the riskiest of her tricks rather than settling for something less audacious she stayed upright but with a slide and a wobble clark joined her competitors at the bottom they hugged and smiled as if the only stakes were backyard bragging rights the six judges performed the arithmetic cameras homed in on faces the wait was excruciating a score flashed 9075 farrington had wonafter she stepped to the high spot of the podium bright to one side and clark to the other farrington was asked about her expectations for a gold medal i dont think i knew i was going to get a gold medal until right now she said