The Americans had three skiers qualify for the final freeski slopestyle event, with Alex Hall seeking to defend his 2022 title.
WASHINGTON — Olympic gold medalists Birk Ruud of Norway and Team USA’s Alex Hall led a star-studded men’s freeski slopestyle final at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Three U.S. athletes competed in Tuesday’s men’s freeski slopestyle final at the Livigno Snow Park in Italy.
Hall was defending his Olympic title on Tuesday. He finished with a silver medal to add to his collection, one position off from a repeat gold.
In an almost casual run down the slope on his second run, Hall proved why he was the defending gold medalist for Beijing. Spinning onto the rails with pinpoint precision, he brushed off the nerves of the first run, a wash after an imperfect dismount from two of the rails, to rocket into second place with an 85.75.
But he was unable to secure gold, bailing out on his third run of the day without putting up a score to challenge Rudd for gold.
During the men’s qualification round, he had finished eighth. He was one of three Americans to make it through to the final.
Hall is a three-time Olympian, winning the gold in the event in Beijing 2022.
“In a pre-Olympics interview, Hall described the track as a “canvas” and himself as an artist carving his way down the slope.
Ruud, who placed first, had the best score after the two qualifying runs. Ruud is the defending champion in men’s freeski big air, having won gold at Beijing 2022. He entered the event as the favorite, having been the reigning back-to-back slopestyle world champion.
With a gold medal secured, Rudd faced no pressure as the last person to ski in his third run. But even still during a downhill ski that was essentially his victory lap, he too fell from a rail and crashed out, before climbing back up and clipping on his fallen ski, doing some simple tricks to make his way down the track.
Konnor Ralph, who is making his Olympic debut during these Winter Games, placed ninth with a best score of 66.76, while his fellow American teammate Mac Forehand finished 11th with a 55.93 score accomplished in the second round. While trying to improve in the third, he dropped off the last rail of the course, taking a bad tumble that ended his run and chances of a medal.
After a wash of a round in his first ski down the hill, Ralph massively improved his second run, showing perfect form on the rails at the beginning of the course and getting big air on all three of the jumps. But in his third run, the all-important rail tricks at the beginning of the course ended his dream of ending on the podium after he slipped off the final one a second too soon.
During the qualifying round, Forehand had fallen on his first run and had to wait an hour for his second chance. He placed sixth in the men’s qualification.
“The nerves were so heavy, I’ve never been so nervous for a contest before,” Forehand said during the qualification round. “But I landed it, and it all worked out.”
Forehand, a two-time Olympian, had previously finished 11th in the Men’s Freeski Big Air event in 2022.
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