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Russ Henshaw could not walk up or down the stairs but still managed to complete moves with 1260 degrees worth of spins, jump off rails and ski backwards on Sunday.
The slopestyle skier literally hobbled into the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and then hobbled out again as he finished 19th and failed to qualify for the event's finals.
It had been a tough lead-up for the 27-year-old, who had to get a medical clearance just to compete in Pyeongchang.
A pioneer in the sport, and a former X Games silver medallist and two-time podium finisher at the world championships, Henshaw has had a litany of knee issues.
He has torn his ACL three times and experienced issues with his left knee in the lead-up to the Games.
A doctor in California told him to forget about these Olympics but he sought a second opinion in Sydney.
There he discovered that it was a less serious meniscus tear with bruising so he decided to plan for competition.
His two-week lead-in involved icing his knee on and off every hour.
"To get there after all I have been through over the last two weeks was just a surreal feeling in itself," Henshaw said.
"It has been an emotional and physical rollercoaster."
It was a similar story before Sochi four years ago, Henshaw having some knee problems and sustaining a heavy crash in competition two weeks before the event.
There he finished eighth.
Looking stiff and unable to go as big off the jumps as many of his competitors on Sunday, Henshaw did well to log two clean runs but never looked like pushing for qualification to the final.
"Up until today I still can't walk up and down stairs," he said.
"This was all muscle memory for me."
Norway's Oystein Braaten (95) won the event ahead of American Nick Goepper (93.6), while Canada's Alex Beaulieu-Marchand (92.4) third.
Meanwhile, Dominic Demschar finished 33rd in the men's giant slalom, with fellow Australian Harry Laidlaw disqualified after failing to finish his first run.
AAP
Topics: freestyle-skiing, winter-sports, sport, korea-republic-of
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