After posting the top score in the men’s halfpipe final, Alex Ferreira was sweating it out at the finish.

The American vaulted himself atop the leaderboard with a score of 93.75 in his final run, guaranteed at least bronze, but could only sit idly as teammate Nick Goepper and Canadian Brendan MacKay took their last licks.

Goepper crashed on his final trick in what looked to be a brutal landing at the top of the pipe, walking off under his own power after being attended to by medics.

Then, MacKay was unable to wrest away the gold from the Colorado native.

That left Ferreira, 31, to be crowned the oldest men’s halfpipe gold medalist in the event’s history.

“I’m going to drink copious amounts of beer,” Ferreira said when asked how he would celebrate.

After MacKay’s score of 91.00 was revealed, Ferreira pumped his fist to the crowd and bent down to the snow in disbelief.

“Best moment of my life,” Ferreira said.

Estonia’s Henry Sildaru earned the silver medal (93.00), and MacKay rounded out the podium.

MacKay’s final run bumped Goepper out of medal contention. American skiers Birk Irving and Hunter Hess finished in fifth and 10th, respectively.

Coming into Milan, Ferreira felt like he was destined for gold.

“It’s really the best that I’ve ever felt going into a Games before,” he told Olympics.com. “Physically, I’m in the best shape of my life. Emotionally, I’m happy. Mentally, I’m in a great place. Spiritually, all good. So I really think that the third time is the charm here.”

“I wholeheartedly believe that I will win gold and it will be the best, most glorious moment of my life. I will cry. Even thinking about it right now is kind of making me tear up,” he added.

Ferreira now has every color medal on the men’s freeski halfpipe.

He took home the silver in his Olympic debut in Pyeongchang in 2018 before winning the bronze in Beijing in 2022.

For Hess, it was the culmination of what he revealed was a stressful week after comments regarding the U.S.’s immigration policies caused President Donald Trump to call him a “loser.” He gave a nod to that incident at the end of his qualifying run by holding an “L” to his forehead.

He bemoaned the backlash that followed.

“I worked so hard to be here. I sacrificed my entire life to make this happen,” Hess said. “I’m not going to let controversy like that get in my way. I love the United States of America. I cannot say that enough. My original statement, I felt like I said that, but apparently people didn’t take it that way. I’m so happy to be here, so happy to represent Team USA.”

“I had a week that was pretty challenging. Luckily, my family was there to support me and help me get through it. There was a lot of noise and I’ve never been subject to that kind of criticism. Skiing has saved my life time and time again and it seems to have done so again.

“There’s been a lot of hate out there. All those people are super entitled to their opinion, and I respect it.”

— with AP