A hometown hero's Olympic debut

The gathering was diverse.

Some were family, others friends. Some knew Maggie Voisin well, some not at all.

But as the few dozen people sat in the basement of a Whitefish business late Friday night, their eyes all glued to the same big-screen television perched high on the wall, their reactions to Voisin’s third and final run in the women’s slopestyle event at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Korea, were nearly identical.

Tension built as Voisin, a Whitefish native, glided gracefully across the rail section of the Phoenix Snow Park.

The attendees held their breath each time she launched 30 feet into the air off the ramps, then let out a small cheer each time she landed a jump.

Finally, a sudden, boisterous cheer when the 19-year-old stuck the landing on the course’s final jump, the same one on which she’d fallen during her first two trips down the park.

“It’s just so exciting,” said Susie Moore, Voisin’s grandmother. “I’m so proud of her. She did awesome.”

Also similar among the attendees was the dissatisfaction toward the score delivered by the judges for Voisin’s impressive run — 81.2.

“It’s the sport on any given Sunday,” Voisin’s uncle, Jeff Raper, said of the lower-than-expected score. “But Maggie laid down a great third run. Couldn’t be prouder.”

It was enough to vault her into bronze medal position for a few minutes. But Great Britain’s Isabel Atkin improved her score to an 84.6 on her third run down the course, enough to bump Voisin to fourth place and off the podium.

The result, though disheartening in the moment, couldn’t have mattered less to those who were thrilled just to see Voisin compete in her first Olympic Games, a sight they expected to see four years ago in Sochi.

Voisin, a favorite to medal in those Games at age 15, instead was unable to compete due to a broken fibula suffered during a training run on the day of opening ceremonies.

The watch parties, four years delayed, were plentiful.

In addition to the relatively small gathering hosted by Raper, Whitefish residents jammed into Craggy Range Bar and Grill, Great Northern Brewing Company, Pin and Cue and other Whitefish establishments to see their hometown hero’s Olympic debut.

“We’re here to see the Maggie show,” said one man as he walked down Central Avenue moments before slopestyle qualifying began at 6 p.m.

The watch parties were mostly duds, as NBC’s coverage of the slopestyle competition was scarce, focused mostly on figure skating and the downhill skiing events instead.

But that didn’t diminish what it meant for the family, Raper said, to see the small town turn out to support as it did.

“Everybody was there,” Raper said of the scene downtown. “A lot of these people, I have no idea who they are. The people I do know, I love the support. The people I don’t know, it’s like, ‘Wow.’ It has to be triple that (feeling) for Maggie. It’s amazing how one person can bring a community together.”

“(The town’s support) means a lot (to Voisin),” Moore added. “She knows, and she loves it. I think she’ll be sorry she didn’t make the podium for everyone.”

Even before the various gatherings dispersed Friday evening, there was already chatter of potential Olympic watch parties to come.

How many the future holds, Raper said, is strictly up to Voisin.

One thing is certain, however. Where she goes, Whitefish will follow.

“From an age perspective, she’s got three (Olympics) in front of her, easy,” Raper said. “If she wants to train for four, she can. There’s a lot of work involved. If she wants to call it — ‘This has been fun, but I’m done’ — then she’s done. Everybody’s happy with that. Super proud.”