LIVIGNO, Italy — The U.S. men’s team of big air freeskiers advanced three of four skiers into the finals on Sunday, a day after all four U.S. women failed to qualify for theirs.
Park City’s Mac Forehand and Troy Podmilsak, along with Salt Lake City’s Konnor Ralph qualified, while Parkite Alex Hall came up short — literally.
Forehand led the whole pack, finishing first with a combined score of 183. Austria’s Matej Svancer followed with a 182.25, and Norway’s Birk Ruud qualified with 181. The top 12 in the qualifying round advanced to the finals.
Podmilsak landed his first two runs for a combined score of 174, finishing in 10th place. Ralph landed his first and third runs for a combined score of 171.75. Ralph had about a 15-minute wait to see if his 12th place finish would hold, which it did, earning him the final bid to Tuesday night’s final.
Hall only landed his second run. On his third and final chance, he didn’t catch enough speed, landing short and falling.
“Super pumped,” Forehand said about skiing Sunday night. “Felt really good in the air, had no struggles at all. Training has been going great.”
With Forehand earning such high scores on his first two jumps, he could try a fun trick he saw in a Tom Wallisch ski video. Wallisch, a Parkite, has been commentating the freeski events for NBC Olympics.
“Felt really cool,” Wallisch said. “I’m a huge fan of his and so happy to play any role in the inspiration of this generation.”
Forehand loved the big crowd on Sunday night. He’s planning to up both his tricks for Tuesday night’s final.
“I’m hyped to do those and push myself a little bit harder,” he said. “It’s pretty fun, and landing the tricks under that pressure — they’re pretty big and scary with the crowd here — is a different feeling. I’m really excited to get that feeling again.”
Forehand called the talent of the U.S. team “insane.” He said they’re best friends and love traveling the world together competing.
“I did the tricks I wanted to,” Podmilsak said. “I set out the plan I wanted to do for qualification. I did it perfectly and then tried a little step up, and it didn’t really go my way.”
Podmilsak has two big tricks he’s aiming to throw in the finals and he said he’s excited to ski alongside Forehand and Ralph.
Podmilsak said he’s always been drawn to the high-flying nature of big air. He even wishes the course at the Livigno Snow Park was bigger.
Despite winning the big air Crystal Globe in 2024 as the season’s best World Cup big air skier, Hall doesn’t love the event. He said he was attempting tricks he’s never thrown before Sunday night, hoping to walk away unscathed.
“Both those tricks were tricks I’ve never landed before,” Hall said about runs one and two. “So that was cool. Then it didn’t work out in the third run, which was a bummer, but still had to go for it. That was a trick I’d only done, like, once before.”
Hall said he knew the odds were stacked against him entering the competition. He’s excited to cheer on his teammates Tuesday night.
“It was fun to be a part of it,” Hall said. “I was scared to do the tricks I was doing. … The main focus was to try and get a medal in slope. So I was really stoked it worked out, and I was still giving it my all for big air.”
Ruud, who won Tuesday’s slopestyle gold medal, will defend his big air gold from the 2022 Beijing Games on Tuesday night. He said he picked up a couple of new tricks in practice Sunday that he’ll debut in the final.
“It would be crazy to get another gold medal,” Ruud said. “If I can do those two tricks, I’m going to be very, very happy no matter the result.”
He said he favors competing in big air “because I love the feeling of flying.”
Ralph prefers slopestyle to big air, like Hall, though he acknowledged he’s been a stronger big air skier. He also plans on trying new tricks and “getting crazy” Tuesday night.
“It’s definitely going to take a lot to podium,” Ralph said. “But I think my mentality will be to come out swinging, and if I land, I land, and if I don’t, I don’t.”
