Copper Mountain freeski big air preview

RUUD LOOKING TO MAKE IT FOR 3-FOR-3 SO FAR IN 2022/23

Sticking with the Norwegian flavour to kick off things on the men’s side of the conversation, we need to talk about the fact that when it comes to freeskiing, right now it is Birk Ruud’s world and the rest of us are just living it.

With wins at both the Big Air Chur and the Stubai slopestyle, Ruud is absolutely cruising to open the 2022/23 campaign, showing no signs of easing off the gas after his gold medal big air win at Beijing 2022. Ruud’s bag of tricks is unparalleled and ever-evolving, and there’s really no telling what sort of magic he might pull out if pushed to his limits. Ruud skiing exudes joy, and he’s worth tuning in for in-and-of himself.

The thing about freeskiing is that the balance of power is constantly shifting, with every athlete a student of the game; learning, adapting, evolving and hunting down the next level at every opportunity. Ruud may be the king right now, but you know every other man on the start list is analyzing his every move as they work to catch up.

The US team has a long and heavy list of skiers with the capabilities to shake things up this week, with Beijing 2022 slopestyle winner Alex Hall leading the way. While it’s been a minute since his last big air win – almost exactly three years, in fact – Hall’s second place finish last season in Steamboat show’s he’s still got what takes to get it done on the big jump.

If training is any indication, perhaps even hotter than Hall here in Copper is Mac Forehand, who was floating effortless left 1800 stalefishes before the first training session was even an hour old on Monday.

Then there’s Troy Podmilsak, the 18-year-old who earned his first career podium with a third-place finish at the Big Air Chur. Fearless and technical, Podmilsak is a big part of the future of the US Freeski team, and a home-soil podium this week would hammer that point home.

As always, the Scandinavians are exceptionally well-represented this week in Copper, with reigning big air World Champion Oliwer Magnusson and Jesper Tjader leading the Swedish team, Sebastian Schjerve, Tormod Frostad and Christian Nummedal backing up Ruud for the Norwegians, and the resurgent Elias Syrjah representing Finland.

It goes without saying that Switzerland’s Andri Ragettli should be in the mix at Friday’s finals, seeing as how the 24-year-old has only missed the finals once in the past seven seasons. Expect him to come out firing after just missing the podium with a fourth-place finish in Chur.

This far into the preview and we haven’t even spoken of Matej Svancer of Austria or Canada’s Max Moffat, Spain’s Javier Lliso or Thibault Magnin, Leonardo Donaggio of Italy…the list keeps going on.

This is going to be a good one.

WHERE TO WATCH (livestream links below)

skiandsnowboard.live (USA), Eurosport 2 Asia, Eurosport Asia streaming, CBC streaming (CAN), CCTV16 (CHN), CT Sport Plus streaming (CZE), TV3 Sport 3HD (EST), V Sport + (FIN), L’Equipe streaming (FRA), RAI Sport (ITA), TV3 Sport (LAT, LIT), ESPN Latin America, V Sport 1 (NOR), Polsat Sport News (POL), JOJ Sport (SVK), TVE/Teledeporte (ESP), V Sport Vinter (SWE), SRG SSR (SUI), Viaplay streaming (GBR)

QUICK LINKS