Move over, Kelly Clark. There's a new Olympic medalist in West Dover.
Devin Logan made history on Tuesday when she earned a silver medal in the Olympic debut of slopestyle skiing at the 2014 Sochi Games.
The event is a hybrid of snowboarding and freestyle skiing, with competitors performing the stunts and spins that snowboarders do in the halfpipe - only on skis instead of a board.
Logan, who also became Twin Valley High School's first Olympic medalist, shot into second place with a solid first run.
She finished behind Canadian Dara Howell, who scored an impressive 94.2 in her first run and went on to win the event's first-ever gold medal. Teammate Kim Lamarre took the bronze.
Conditions were extremely slushy at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, which slowed skiers and made the event even more challenging.
“I was really happy with my run and couldn't have asked for anything better,” Logan said after the event. “I skied one of my best days today even with everything: the conditions, the slushiness, seeing a lot of girls go down. I put it down and wouldn't take it back.”
Logan also had high praise for the winner.
“Dara had the sickest run of the day,” Logan said. “I'm so happy she was the one to beat me. I was up on the podium with my friends, and I couldn't have asked for a better day. She killed it and we deserve it, especially after [ESPN's] X Games.”
The event completed a long comeback for Logan, who celebrates her 21st birthday on Feb. 17.
In 2011, she won the U.S. halfpipe skiing title. In 2011 and 2012 she landed the Association of Freeskiing Professionals overall championship.
But in the fall of 2012, she blew out her right knee. After surgery to repair a torn ACL and meniscus, she missed the 2012-13 season and her Olympic dreams were in jeopardy. While she rehabbed her knee, she enrolled in college and got certified as a freeskiing judge, which she credits as giving her new insights in how to improve her technique.
Logan grew up three miles from Mount Snow, and was on skis by age 2. She was the little sister tagging along when her older brothers, Sean and Chris, were competing in freeskiing events. Eventually, she took up freeskiing herself, and soon surpassed her brothers.
Her mother, Nancy Logan, was at Rosa Khutor to see her daughter make history.
“I get my craziness from her,” Devin told The Associated Press. ''She hasn't seen me ski for two years now (because of work). It makes me cry and just experiencing this, all the all the long hours and sacrifices she put in. Hopefully, I make her proud.''
West Dover's other Olympian will get her chance to add to her lengthy resume starting on Feb. 12. Snowboarder Kelly Clark, a gold medalist in 2002 and a bronze medalist in 2010, is trying for her third Olympic medal in the halfpipe.
With 70 career victories in national and international competition, there is not much left to prove for the 30-year-old Clark. Win or lose, she stands alone as one of the greatest halfpipe competitors of all time.
And now, Clark has some company in the Olympic Medalists of the Deerfield Valley club.