SAUZE D'OULX, Italy -- Ranked No. 3 in the world on a Canadian team dominating the men's aerials circuit, Calgary's Warren Shouldice stood in the media area in shock.
As fireworks lit up the night sky as part of the podium celebrations behind him, the 22-year-old tried to comprehend just how long it would take for the disappointment to subside.
"As a team, it's tough -- personally, it's devastating," said the man they call Wookie, who finished sixth in his first Olympics yesterday.
"It was really mine for the taking up there. If I had stuck my second jump, I could be up there on the podium. I'll watch it on video hundreds and hundreds of times and this will definitely haunt me for a little while to come."
His teammate and roomie, Kyle Nissen, was similarly stunned after finishing fifth.
"I'm disappointed," said Nissen, 26, the world's current World Cup leader with five podiums in eight events.
"I could have been on the podium given my ranking and how I've been jumping this season. It's just unfortunate. We definitely should have had a Canadian on the podium."
Still surprised highly-touted teammates Steve Omischl and Jeff Bean failed to qualify three days earlier for the 12-man final, the two Calgarians figured they'd likely be celebrating on the podium together like fellow Calgarians Duff Gibson and Jeff Pain did in skeleton.
The judges had other plans.
"I've never felt more calm and confident before my first jump and I did exactly what I wanted," said Shouldice, sixth after the first jump.
"I was definitely in the game after that. I felt great after my second jump too but my landing obviously cost me."
Nissen's undoing stemmed from altering his game plan.
"The way they were judging the semis, I ended up having to change the trick I did," said Nissen, who had the best second jump of the night, which wasn't able to make up for his eighth-place status after Jump 1.
"I had to do a trick I didn't have the mileage on. I put it down -- had a little trouble with the landing -- but it was just a couple points shy of being good enough."
Nissen finished less than two points behind Russian bronze medalist Vladimir Lebedev, who scored 246.76.
Belarus' Dmitri Dashinski was second while gold went to China's 20-year-old Xiaopeng Han who has never won a World Cup event.
The Canadian freestyle team leaves Turin with only one medal, Jenn Heil's opening-day moguls gold.
