With a victory in the penultimate U.S. Olympic selection event, Mac Forehand is one giant step closer to the Milan Cortina Olympics.

Snowmass hosted freeski slopestyle competitions as part of the U.S. Grand Prix at Aspen. In addition to being the first slopestyle World Cup of the season for the men (and the second for the women), it also served as a selection event for the U.S. Olympic slopestyle and big air team.

Entering the week, two of the four spots on the U.S. men’s roster had already been claimed. Alex Hall was the first to qualify based on last season’s results, and Troy Podmilsak locked up a spot in December after back-to-back wins at the first two selection events, both of which were big air contests.

The next spot will automatically go to the man with the best single result at one of the selection events. Before now, that was Konnor Ralph, who finished 2nd at the Steamboat big air contest. Now, thanks to his win in Aspen, Forehand has taken the inside track.

While the U.S. qualifying picture was the predominant story of the competition, the field was still loaded with some big international names, including New Zealand’s Luca Harrington, Switzerland’s Andri Ragettli and Italy’s Miro Tabanelli.

With section-by-section judging in effect and rail features making up three of the five sections of the course, skiers needed to be nearly perfect on the rails to have a shot at the podium. Forehand avoided costly mistakes in those sections on Run 1 but truly excelled on the jumps, with his back-to-back 1620s earning some of the day’s best scores for those specific parts of the course.

Forehand’s overall score (77.38) was enough to top the podium ahead of Estonia’s Henry Sildaru (75.90) and Norway’s Ulrik Samnoey (74.64).

"The Olympics is always on everyone’s head," Forehand said afterward. "It’s all I’ve been thinking about the past couple of months, and I haven’t had the results that I wanted to do, and today it all clicked, and I’m so happy."

Ralph narrowly missed a spot on the podium, finishing in 4th place. While Forehand now holds the advantage for the final automatic berth, a fourth man will ultimately be named to the team — either as a discretionary pick or via objective criteria — and Ralph’s latest finish has him sitting a very promising spot at the moment.

One skier in danger of missing the U.S. roster is Colby Stevenson, who won silver in big air at the 2022 Olympics but is considered more of a slopestyle specialist. Stevenson finished 9th at Snowmass and, even if he were to win the final selection event, is out of the running for that final automatic berth.

On the women’s side, Great Britain’s Kirsty Muir continued her strong start to the season with a victory. The 21-year-old, who also won a big air competition in November, topped a podium that included Canadians Megan Oldham (2nd) and Elena Gaskell (3rd).

With this result, Oldham has taken over the lead in the World Cup standings. She finished 4th at the season opener in Stubai after the final was cancelled due to weather.

Avery Krumme, the lone American in the field, finished 6th. The 17-year-old rookie was born in Canada but switched her nationality over the summer to represent the United States in competitions. Although no U.S. women have made the podium in a freeski slopestyle or big air selection event — a component necessary for automatic selection — Krumme continues to make a strong case for her inclusion on the Olympic roster.

The final selection event for freeski slopestyle will be the Laax Open in Switzerland. The U.S. Grand Prix at Aspen will continue with snowboard halfpipe at 3 p.m. ET on Friday, then snowboard slopestyle and freeski halfpipe on Sunday.

Men’s Freeski Slopestyle

1. Mac Forehand (USA), 77.38
2. Henry Sildaru (EST), 75.90
3. Ulrik Samnoey (NOR), 74.64
4. Konnor Ralph (USA), 73.21
5. Sebastian Schjerve (NOR), 73.14
6. Max Moffatt (CAN), 72.71
7. Henry Townshend (USA), 70.50
8. Luca Harrington (NZL), 69.99
9. Colby Stevenson (USA), 65.98
10. Ben Barclay (NZL), 65.08
11. Andri Ragettli (SUI), 64.46
12. Fabian Boesch (SUI), 63.79
13. Hunter Henderson (USA), 60.53
14. Alex Hall (USA), 45.56
15. Evan Mceachran (CAN), 36.22
16. Miro Tabanelli (ITA), 27.36

Women’s Freeski Slopestyle

1. Kirsty Muir (GBR), 80.62
2. Megan Oldham (CAN), 73.02
3. Elena Gaskell (CAN), 72.90
4. Giulia Tanno (SUI), 65.90
5. Maria Gasslitter (ITA), 56.00
6. Avery Krumme (USA), 34.24
7. Olivia Asselin (CAN), 27.00
8. Anni Karava (FIN), DNS