All three American men competing in men's aerials qualified for the men's aerials final on Friday at Livigno Snow Park.
Connor Curran was the lone American to qualify for the final in the first round of qualification with 117.26 points after a near-perfect landing on his back full-double full-full. Chris Lillis took a second run after finishing outside the top six and placed 4th in the second round of qualification to book his spot in the final while Derek Krueger, who just missed avoiding a second run after placing 7th in the first round, advanced on his first-round score.
No American man has won an Olympic medal in men's aerials since the late Jeret "Speedy" Peterson claimed silver at the 2010 Vancouver Games. It's been even longer since an American man has won this event after Eric Bergoust won gold at the 1998 Nagano Games.
Pirmin Werner (SUI) led the pack of 12 aerialists heading into the men's aerials final on Friday after landing a clean back double full-full-full.
The 26-year-old barely edged Qi Guangpu (CHN), who had a slightly lower level of difficulty on his trick. Qi will be looking to join teammate Xu Mengtao in defending his Olympic gold from Beijing and becoming the second aerialist behind Xu to win back-to-back Olympic gold in aerials. Wang Xindi (CHN) joined Qi in the final after the first round of qualification, landing a back double full-full-full like Werner although just a tad bit less cleanly. Wang finished in 5th in the final FIS World Cup standings, just short of contributing to the Chinese rankings sweep.
After a disappointing crash in his first qualification run, Li Tianma (CHN) came out with a statement five twists to take the top spot in the second round of qualification with a whopping 127.50 points, the highest score out of all the qualifying runs. Sun Jiaxu, who suffered a similar crash landing, placed 2nd behind him to move into Friday's final.
Chinese aerialists have made the podium of every men's aerials event since the 2006 Torino Games when Han Xiaopeng claimed gold. This year's contingent is in prime position to earn at least one podium spot with four of the last six World Cups won by a Chinese skier.
Podium contenders Dmytro Kotovskyi (UKR) and Miha Fontaine (CAN) did not advance to the final after unsteady landings on both their runs. American Quinn Dehlinger withdrew from competition after suffering a knee injury during training.