3 Team USA snowboarders advance to men’s big air final

Three Americans — Kyle Mack, Chris Corning and Red Gerard — will advance to the Men’s Snowboard Big Air Final after qualifying on Tuesday.

In primetime on Tuesday, 36 male snowboarders completed qualifications for the inaugural 2018 Winter Olympics snowboarding men’s big air final, set to be held later this week.

Among the riders aiming for a shot at the final were snowboarding slopestyle gold medalist Red Gerard (U.S.), silver medalist Max Parrot (Canada) and bronze medalist Mark McMorris (Canada), all of whom will advance.

2018 marks the Winter Games debut of the big air discipline, following the premiere of slopestyle at the 2014 Sochi Games. And as you’ll notice from the list of entries, many riders compete in both events.

Unlike in slopestyle, where snowboarders put together their best run using rails, jumps and other course features to string together tricks, big air gives them an opportunity to land their single-best trick in the air after descending down a 160-foot-long ramp.

Let’s take a closer look at the 12 riders who will move on to spin and flip their way to a potential medal in the big air final.

Men’s Big Air Qualifying Results

Heat 1

1. Max Parrot, Canada (92.50)
2. Niklas Mattsson, Sweden (90.00)
3. Kyle Mack, USA (88.75)
4. Chris Corning, USA (88.00)
5. Michael Schaerer, Switzerland (87.00)
6. Red Gerard, USA (85.00)

Heat 2

1. Carlos Garcia Knight, New Zealand (97.50)
2. Jonas Boesiger, Switzerland (96.00)
3. Mark McMorris, Canada (95.75)
4. Torgeir Bergrem, Norway (94.25)
5. Sebastien Toutant, Canada (91.00)
6. Billy Morgan, Great Britain (90.50)

As you can see, Heat 1 was decidedly more forgiving than Heat 2, where riders needed to earn a 90 just to make the cut as one of six in each heat to qualify for the big air final.

In big air, judging criteria includes the following four aspects of the jump and trick: difficulty, execution, landing, and amplitude.

With that being the case, Americans Kyle Mack, Chris Corning and Red Gerard — all of whom earned scores in the high 80s — will advance to the big air final from Heat 1, while their teammate Ryan Stassell, who had a 76.25 on his best run in Heat 2, will not.

Canadian Max Parrot, who earned the silver medal in slopestyle earlier in these Games, owned the highest score of the night at the conclusion of the Heat 1 runs. His best score was a 92.50 thanks to a backside double cork 1440, the most prevalent trick in Heat 1.

In Heat 2, however, the riders upped the ante, and none more so than New Zealand’s Carlos Garcia Knight. On his second run, he earned an incredible 97.50 from the judges

Highlights

New Zealand’s Carlos Garcia Knight shocked the judges when he cleaned up his already impressive switch backside 1620 on his second run:

https://twitter.com/nzolympics/status/966161971212005376

Other highlights from the qualifiers’ eye-popping performances are below:

https://twitter.com/CBCOlympics/status/966143699062157312

Catch Mack, Corning, Gerard and the rest of these incredible athletes in the men’s big air final on Friday at 8 p.m. ET.

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