American Mack Forehand started 2023 with his first major Senior Ski Big Air title and ended 2023 with a title at Visa Big Air in Copper Mountain, Colorado on Saturday.
Forehand, who was 11th in his Olympic debut last year, scored 93 and 94 points on his final two runs (two different triple cork 1800s) to beat Italy’s Milo Tabanelli by two points. Olympic gold medalist Birk Ruud (Norway) took third place.
The biggest forehand title of his career came with a clutch final run at the X Games last January. He scored his 2160 points in that competition, earning him a perfect score of 50. In 2018 he also won the world junior title.
Later, Olympic silver medalist Queralt Castellet (Spain) in the snowboarding halfpipe landed awkwardly on the lip, fell into the air and crashed toward the bottom of the pipe, hitting his helmet on the ground late in his second run. . The game was suspended for 13 minutes. Castellet was unable to complete his third and final run.
Choi Ga-on, a 15-year-old from South Korea, scored a winning run of 92.75 points by landing in the 900-second range three times immediately after the delay.
Last January, she won the X Games at the age of 14, breaking Chloe Kim’s record as the youngest snowboard halfpipe champion in the event’s history.
Kim is scheduled to return to competition next month for the first time since winning back-to-back Olympic championships last year.
In the men’s halfpipe final, Olympic gold medalist Ayumu Hirano of Japan landed a triple cork 1440 on his final run, rising from last place to first with 91 points. It held up.
French woman Tess Ledoux won the women’s ski big air with runs of 95.75 and 93.25 points. She beat Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud by 3.5 points.
Ledoux and Gremaud won silver and bronze in their Olympic debut in this event last year. Gold medalist Eileen Gu did not compete in big air at the Copper event, but she won Friday’s halfpipe.
Highlights from Friday and Saturday’s ski and snowboard halfpipe and big air finals at Copper Air. Sunday at 1:30 PM ET on CNBC (Big Air) and 4:30 PM ET on NBC (Halfpipe).
All coverage will also be streamed on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app for subscribers of those channels. peacock