Olympic gold medalists Alex Hall, Eileen Gu, David Wise and Red Gerard headline the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix and Visa Big Air snowboard and freeski finals from Copper Mountain, Colorado, this weekend.
Highlights from Friday and Saturday finals air Sunday at 1:30 p.m. ET on CNBC (big air) and 4:30 on NBC (halfpipe). All coverage also streams on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app for subscribers of those channels, plus on Peacock.
Hall, who won Olympic ski slopestyle gold last year, leads a men’s big air field that includes the reigning big air champions from the Olympics (Norwegian Birk Ruud), the world championships (American Troy Podmilsak) and the X Games (American Mac Forehand).
Women’s ski big air pits Olympic silver and bronze medalists Tess Ledeux of France and Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland.
China’s Gu, who swept Olympic ski halfpipe and big air titles, competes strictly in the pipe at Copper. Last winter, she endured season-ending knee injuries in a January training crash before the X Games.
Gu, whose last pipe defeat was in March 2021, faces a field in Copper that includes reigning world champion American Hanna Faulhaber and reigning X Games winner Brit Zoe Atkin.
The Copper men’s ski halfpipe field is loaded with American talent: two-time Olympic champion David Wise, two-time Olympic medalist Alex Ferreira and three-time Olympic ski slopestyle medalist Nick Goepper, who switched to pipe this year.
In snowboarding, 2018 Olympic slopestyle champion Red Gerard made the men’s big air final, where he’ll face three-time reigning X Games winner Marcus Kleveland of Norway. Olympic gold medalist Su Yiming of China did not advance out of qualifying.
Women’s big air includes American Julia Marino, the Olympic slopestyle silver medalist. Two-time Olympic gold medalist Anna Gasser of Austria didn’t enter Copper after competing in Edmonton last week.
Men’s halfpipe is billed as another showdown between Olympic gold and silver medalists Ayumu Hirano of Japan and Scotty James of Australia.
South Korean Gaon Choi, who last January broke Chloe Kim’s record as the youngest X Games snowboard halfpipe champion at age 14, headlines the women’s field. Olympic silver medalist Queralt Castellet of Spain and U.S. Olympian Maddie Mastro also made the final.
Kim is expected to return to competition in January for the first time since repeating as Olympic champion.
