PARK CITY ? Talk about hitting the mother lode.
American snowboarders discovered an Olympic gold mine in that long channel of snow known as a halfpipe. Not to mention a vein of silver. Oh, there also was time to forge some bronze, too.
High-flying Ross Powers, Danny Kass and J.J. Thomas pulled off an amazing a sweep Monday, the first time the U.S. has gone 1-2-3 in any Winter Games event since men's figure skating in 1956.
"A U.S. sweep after everything that's happened in the States is huge for us. It's awesome," gold medalist Powers said. "It's a huge day for America."
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association set a goal of 10 medals in the 2002 Winter Games. With four medals now, the snowboard team is more than holding up its end.
Monday marked the second consecutive day the Americans found themselves atop the podium in halfpipe. Eighteen-year-old Kelly Clark won the women's contest Sunday in dramatic style on the last run of the day.
"Kelly's win was huge for the U.S. and then for us to back it up, that's even bigger. Kelly rode so well yesterday it definitely pumped me up," said Powers, who turned 22 on Sunday.
Powers and Thomas even joked about pulling off a sweep while riding the chairlift after the qualification round, in which all four American riders earned trips to the 12-man finals.
"That would be crazy," Thomas recalled them saying to each other. "But it happened."
The three-medal day brought out a couple more Olympic firsts:
Powers is the first repeat snowboard medalist, having won bronze at the sport's Olympic debut in Nagano four years ago.
It was the first sweep in snowboarding.
It was the first time a man and a woman from the same nation won gold in snowboarding.
Although the U.S. hasn't swept a Winter Games event for 46 years, that wasn't the last time Americans took home three medals in one event. A trio of women's speedskaters tied for silver with identical times in 1968.
Any way you look at it, Monday's improbable outcome was, what else, huge.
Asked what it would take to win the 2002 Winter Games halfpipe, the answer, to a man, was "go big."
The roaring crowd, estimated to be some 20,000 strong, was in a rockin' mood from the first hit. The roar was electrifying at times.
U2 wasn't in the house. But it didn't matter because Powers, Kass and Thomas provided the elevation, busting some of the highest airs in what race director Ted Martin said was the biggest halfpipe ever made.
Powers didn't know how high above above the lip he soared but said observers told him it was 15 feet to 18 feet. That puts him about three stories above the halfpipe's flat bottom.
The veteran rider from South Londonderry, Vt., who won his first world championship at age 17, punctuated his huge straight airs with two 720-degree spins and a difficult switch McTwist, a 540-degree inverted aerial done riding backward.
Powers put a score of 46.1 out of a possible 50 on the first of two finals runs that he didn't think would stand. But no other rider even came close to it.
The 19-year-old Kass followed with a 42.5 on his first run, including a 1080-degree spin (three complete turns), much to the delight of his cheering family and friends and the "team manager blow-up doll" that travels with his posse.
"I think that (trick) with the combination of some of the smoothness and the amplitude could have helped but that was my clinching silver medal trick."
Kass, who grew up in Hamburg, N.J., intends to celebrate with some of his standard mischief ? leaving his Grenade Gloves company logo here and there.
"I have not spray painted yet. The night's not over. I'll spray paint something, that's for sure," he said.
Park City residents beware.
Thomas had an incredible ride to the podium over the past six months.
The Golden, Colo., resident last September in a meet in Chile earned the fourth and final U.S. spot in the Games, which under Olympic rules belongs to a nation not an individual. Then he went out with some spectacular riding, he grabbed the spot himself in the last U.S. Olympic qualification meet less than a month ago.
Staying to true to form, Thomas shook off a case of the jitters to barely win the bronze, besting the fourth-place finisher by just one-tenth of a point. He scored 42.1 on his second finals run.
"I just feel fortunate to be right here, right now. I just feel happy about it. I'm happy for Ross. That guy deserves it. He's been doing it for so long. He's the pipe champ. Everybody knows it."
Powers also is a birthday boy, or was yesterday.
"It's the best birthday present ever," he said. "These guys beside me (Kass and Thomas) were also huge."
E-MAIL: romboy@desnews.com