PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — At least the Americans have the Phoenix Snow Park halfpipe.

Freestyle skier David Wise successfully defended his gold medal Thursday, breaking through on his final run to give the U.S. its third gold medal in the halfpipe at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

Wise wiped out on each of his first two runs when his skis popped off his feet. After swapping out his skis and cranking up the bindings for his final try, he sneaked past countryman Alex Ferreira with a score of 97.20.

It was a dream run for Wise, who landed double corks in all four directions — front left, front right, switch (backward) left and switch right.

“Putting all four of them into a run is certainly the most challenging thing I’ve ever done,” he said.

Of the eight gold medals U.S. in Pyeongchang, five have come at Phoenix Snow Park, including those from snowboarders Chloe Kim, Shaun White, Red Gerard and Jamie Anderson.

The snowboard and freestyle skiing crews have picked up the slack for the U.S. team in these Olympics. Those competitors have accounted for 10 of the country’s 21 medals, many of them at the snow park located an hour away from the Gangneung Olympic Plaza.

Ferreira took silver, and 16-year-old Nico Porteous from New Zealand got bronze. It was the second medal of the day for the Kiwis after snowboarder Zoi Sadowski Synnott won bronze in big air to end New Zealand’s 26-year Winter Games drought.

Shiffrin silver in alpine combined

Michelle Gisin of Switzerland won the women’s alpine combined on Thursday with an aggressive slalom run to edge American Mikaela Shiffrin at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

Lindsey Vonn, the leader after the downhill portion, made a mistake early in the slalom Thursday and did not finish in what is likely her final Winter Games. Gisin was nearly flawless in finishing in a combined time of 2 minutes, 20.90 seconds to hold off silver medalist Shiffrin by 0.97 seconds. Wendy Holdener of Switzerland earned the bronze.

Austrian wins gold in big air

Anna Gasser edged two-time gold medalist Jamie Anderson to win gold in the Olympic debut of women’s big air snowboarding on Thursday.

Gasser, the reigning world champion, stomped the last of her three jumps, a double cork 1080 that saw the Austrian flip twice while spinning three times. Her score of 96 was the highest of the day and gave her a total of 185.00.

Anderson, who last week captured her second Olympic gold in women’s slopestyle, led going into the final round but sat down while trying to land her last jump. Gasser took full advantage. The 26-year-old raised her arms in triumph and embraced Anderson after the score flashed.