Feb 17, 2026
3 min read
Mac Forehand and 10 other skiers scored 90 or higher on at least one individual jump.Matej Švancer and Birk Ruud each had two scores over 90, while Tormod Frostad collected the judges' highest unique trick total with 96.25 on his double bio 1440 on the right side.
The judges had their work cut out for them and fans witnessed history on Sunday night as the freestyle skiers showed an amazing level of collective progress in the men's big air qualification for the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Games in Italy.
Mac Forehand of the United States combined a 1980 left triple cork (93.25) with a 1620 left nose-butt triple cork (89.75) to lead the way to first place at 183.00.He will fall to last place in Tuesday's final.
Forehand USA teammates Troy Podmilsak and Connor Ralph were just 12 skiers behind in 10th (174.00) and 12th (171.75) despite incredible combinations.
Matej Swanzer of Austria (182.25) was the second best scorer, followed by Birk Ruud of Norway and Tormod Frostad in third (181.00) and fourth (180.25).Ruud, who won slopestyle gold last week and is the defending top flight competitor, decided to skip his final race.
"It was a very good qualifier," Rudd said. "I expect [the final] to be a tough battle. There will be a lot of big tricks at the top. The plan is to try to enjoy it and give my best tricks. That's all I can do."
Luca Harrington of New Zealand, who won last month's Winter X Games, placed fifth (179.75)
"It was a crazy event," said Harrington."The tricks that were performed are impressive. These are big, big tricks. A lot of these guys did new, bigger tricks just to get selected. I think we're going to have an interesting show for the upcoming finals."
It seems that the French surfers Matias Roche and Timothée Sibignon immediately got out of the sixth place (178.50) and 7th (178.00).Only Sibignon reached the podium at the World Cup (second in Klagenfurt in 2025 and bronze in 2022).
11 skiers got at least one personal jump score of 90 plus.Swanser and Rudd each scored two 90-plus points, while Frosted collected the judges' highest score for a single trick (96.25) on a right nose double butter 1440.
Forehand says he knows the trick he got on the second run - a pear butter triple cork 1620 - three or four days ago.The second trick he learned — the pear butter triple cork 1980 — he plans to do in the finals.
"[The final] will be one of the best finals skiing has ever seen," Forehand said."It's going to be crazy if the weather is this good. People are skiing so well."
The men's freeski competition is scheduled for Tuesday, February 17, at 1:30 p.m.E.T.You can watch it live on Peacock and NBCOlympics.com.
Men's Big Air Freeski Qualification
- Mac Forehand, USA (183.00)
- Matej Svanser, Austria (182.25)
- Birk Road, Norway (181.00)
- Tormod Frosted, Norway (180.25)
- Luca Harrington, New Zealand (179.75)
- Matias Roche, France (178.50)
- Timothée Sauvignon, France (178.00)
- Ulrik Samnøy, Norway (176.00)
- Dylan Deschamps, Canada (175.50)
- Troy Podmilsak, United States of America (174.00)
- UMMartin Nordqvist, eSweden (173.50).
- Connor Ralph, United States (171.75)
