Summary Logan was competing for the first time since winning the half pipe gold medal in 2012.
QUEENSTOWN (AP) - Devin Logan of the United States made a courageous return from a serious knee injury to win gold in a women's freestyle world cup half pipe event at the New Zealand Winter Games.
Logan was competing for the first time since winning the half pipe gold medal at the 2012 New Zealand event. She qualified eighth out of 12 finalists and took the gold medal with a score of 84.60 as bad weather reduced the men's and women's finals to a single run.
Antti-Jussi Kemppainen of Finland won the men's event with a score of 86.60 from Aaron Blunck and Taylor Seaton of the United States.
Angeli Vanlaanen of the United States had to wait more than an hour before her run in the women's final but scored 80.00 to take the silver medal while Mirjam Jaeger of Switzerland took bronze with a solid run of 74.80.
Logan said she was delighted with her performance.
"The weather didn't co-operate as everyone had hoped but I'm stoked to be back from my injury and happy to take the top spot," she said. "Feeling good!"
Kemppainen said conditions were "pretty tough" but was glad the event was completed on schedule.
"It feels pretty good," Kemppainen said. "I didn't really expect anything this cool, but it's definitely a good start for the season and I'm happy."
Qualifying began on Sunday and continues on Monday for the men's snowboard slope style world cup.
