Beijing Winter Olympics 2022: Margaux Hackett shakes off crashes but Kiwi freeskiers miss finals

Margaux Hackett performs a trick during the women's freestyle skiing big air. Photo / Getty

After a training crash was followed by two more in her first two jumps, Margaux Hackett was "stoked" simply to land a trick today.

The 22-year-old was unable to progress out of qualifying in the women's freeski big air in Beijing but just reaching the start line was an achievement in itself.

Hackett - the daughter of bungy jumping icon AJ Hackett - suffered a fall during the first day of training that left her in pain and unable to practise.

Her participation in the big air was doubtful, especially with her favoured slopestyle event looming on Sunday, but Hackett was eventually able to take her place.

Any pain the Kiwi was feeling would not have been helped by two more crashes during her first two jumps, being unable to land attempted 900s.

But Hackett recovered to land a switch right side 900 on her final attempt, posting a score of 65.00 to finish with a combined score of 74.75 and place 22nd in the 25-woman field.

"Honestly I'm just so stoked to have landed something out there," Hackett told Sky. "It's been a struggle the last few days. I had a crash on the first day of training, so I've been through a lot of pain the last few days.

"I didn't do much training. I was able to do a little bit yesterday, just enough to be able to feel comfortable to compete.

"I wasn't actually sure I was going to be here and start, so I'm really happy that the physios helped me and everyone on the New Zealand team has been really helpful and supportive."

New Zealand's bad luck at the big air continued tonight when Ben Barclay and Finn Bilous competed in the men's event.

Needing to finish in the top 12 to progress to the final, Barclay was 16th with a total score of 162.75 while Bilous was not too far behind in 18th with 155.75, short of 12th-place rider Jesper Tjader on 170.00

Barclay briefly jumped to 12th by saving the best of his three efforts for last, recording the third-best final-round score in the 31-man field, but the 20-year-old was soon pushed down the leaderboard.

The next Kiwi action in Beijing will come tomorrow night, when Campbell Wright competes in the 20km biathlon and Peter Michael lines up in the 1500m speedskating.

Wright, 19, will become just the second biathlete to represent New Zealand at the Games, while Michael will be hoping to improve on the fourth-place finishes he recorded in both the 5000m and the team pursuit at PyeongChang in 2018.