Pittsford’s Lillis falls just short of a second Olympic medal

BEIJING (WHEC) — Chris Lillis has become a must-watch at the 2022 Winter Olympics, and nearly brought home a second medal from Beijing.

Lillis, 23, began Wednesday morning as one of the 12 skiers in the finals for men’s aerials. His first finals score of 125.67 was enough and by a long shot. Each skier takes the best score of their two runs in the first finals to advance to the medal round. That helped Lillis get into third place.

However, Lillis fell on his landing in the medal round, which forced the judges to deduct point. He got a 103 score which was last place of the six skiers vying for a medal.

Justin Schoenefeld, also on Team USA, barely beat out Lillis with a 105. He came in fifth.

The medal winners were China’s Guangpu Qi (gold), Ukraine’s Oleksandr Abramenko (silver), and Russian Olympic Committee’s Ilia Burov (bronze).