Five Canadians advance to snowboard big air finals at Beijing 2022
Two women and three men will represent the maple leaf in the finals of the snowboard big air competitions at Beijing 2022.
Laurie Blouin and Jasmine Baird have moved on from the women’s side, while Max Parrot, Mark McMorris and Darcy Sharpe have all advanced in the men’s event.
Competing at the stunning Big Air Shougang, Parrot, the slopestyle gold medallist in Beijing, topped the men’s qualification event with a total of 164.75 points for his two best-of-three runs. He had a single best trick score of 86.70 for his second run.
“I was really stoked on my performance today, landed my first two runs pretty much perfectly,” said Parrot. “Tomorrow is another day, so I will focus on that.”
McMorris, who won his third straight Olympic slopestyle bronze in Beijing, was eighth in qualifying with a two-run total of 147.25 points.
“Definitely happy to be into the final with such a competitive field,” said McMorris. “Having a berth into the final and giving yourself a shot is the key and hopefully I can put down some really good runs tomorrow and with that I’ll be happy. We’ll see where that has me ending up.”
Sharpe took the 12th and final qualifying position with 142.00 points. After having to wait until the end of the competition to see if he had qualified to the final, Sharpe noted how tough the big air competition has grown, but is confident in his own abilities as well.
“I was just imagining how my parents at home are just freaking out watching, they were definitely hoping I would survive [staying in 12th place],” Sharpe said. “I’m not surprised the tricks I did made it into finals, I’m just surprised that they just barely made it in 12th, because who knew the level of riding has gotten this far in big air.”
Sebastien Toutant, the defending gold medallist from PyeongChang 2018, finished in 26th place and will not be advancing into the final.
After finishing fourth in slopestyle, Blouin was fourth in the women’s big air qualification with 156.25 points. She had a high single run score of 88.25 points for her third attempt. Baird will compete in her first Olympic final, qualifying 10th with 129.50 points.
“I feel good, I’m happy to have landed my three jumps,” said Blouin. “We really had a beautiful day today and I’m happy with what I did.”
“I’m so happy,” Baird echoed. “Qualifying for the Olympic Games have been a dream come true and now making the Olympic finals in big air after I didn’t get to land in slopestyle, I’m excited to ride tomorrow and see what I can do.”
Rounding out the Canadian team in the women’s big air competition was Brooke Voigt, who was unable to advance in 21st place.
Big air action resumes on Day 11 with the women’s final beginning at 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT, followed by the men’s final at 12:00 a.m. ET/ 9:00 p.m. PT.
