Norway's Birk Ruud and Tormod Frostad led all men's freeski slopestyle qualifiers Saturday afternoon in Livigno, Italy, on a picture-perfect Day 1 of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Defending Olympic gold medalist Alex Hall and fellow Americans Mac Forehand and Konnor Ralph also made the dozen-skier cut, giving the U.S. a solid shot at some hardware for Tuesday's final.
Ruud, the two-time reigning world champion, put together a beautiful first run, gathering scores of 8 and above on half the course features to post an 81.75. The 25-year-old won gold in big air at the 2022 Games but took 5th in slopestyle.
Frostad also took advantage of his first go of the course, unleashing a massive nose-butter 270 on change-up to 630 out on the rails with 1440 and 1620 jumps to close for a 79.96. He missed the event's final at the Beijing Olympics.
Hall showed off while seemingly keeping things simple, hitting the rainbow-to-down rail on Run 1 with a sweet combo to post a 71.63 for 8th place. He'll likely have something different in store for the final like he did in 2022.
"That was nerve-wracking because there was a little bit of strategy involved," he said on qualifying. "You don't want to show all your cards. You don't want to try something too hard that you might not land."
A jack-of-all-trades, Hall has likely been the most consistent skier over the Olympic quadrennial, winning a pair of World Cups and a bronze at the world championships last season before finishing 3rd at January's X Games. Born in Alaska and raised in Zurich, the 27-year-old holds an Italian passport via his mom Elena who hails from Bologna.
The other U.S. qualifiers both persevered. Forehand, the 2025 world silver medalist, bobbled the rails in his first run. In the clutch, the Fairfield, Conn., native rocked a smooth second run, hitting a mega switch triple cork 1620 to total 74.46.
Meanwhile, Ralph stomped back-to-back 1440s on Run 1 then had to wait and see after a mid Run 2. The pair finished sixth and 10th, respectively.
"This whole week, I've been trying to think of it as just a normal competition, but I was definitely way more nervous than I ever have been, so it felt really good to put it down right away," Ralph said.
The 23-year-old Montanan told reporters he chose "Heat" by 50 Cent to get him through. "I like the rhythm and it gets me going," he said. "It has a long intro … I have to start it, then pause it at the point I want just before I drop in."
The slopestyle and big air events share the same pool of athletes.
The men's freeski slopestyle final takes place Tuesday, Feb. 10, at 6:30 a.m. ET. You can watch it live on Peacock and NBCOlympics.com.
Men's freeski slopestyle qualifiers
- Birk Ruud, Norway (81.75)
- Tormod Frostad, Norway (79.96)
- Jesper Tjader, Sweden (79.83)
- Matej Svancer, Austria (79.63)
- Andri Ragettli, Switzerland (75.00)
- Mac Forehand, United States (74.46)
- Ben Barclay, New Zealand (73.36)
- Alex Hall, United States (71.63)
- Luca Harrington, New Zealand (69.70)
- Konnor Ralph, United States (68.91)
- Sebastian Schjerve, Norway (67.63)
- Kim Gubser, Switzerland (64.10)