At only 21 years old, Mac Forehand beat out the veterans of the sport when he landed a perfect 2160 Cuban in the men's ski big air contest at the 2023 X Games. 

Forehand, who won the X Games silver medal the day before in men's ski slopestyle, still had something left in his bag for the second-to-last competition of the X Games. With four attempts of the big air jump, Forehand never ventured out of the top three. In the strong field of 10 competitors, including teammates Alex Hall and Troy Podmilsak, Forehand had what it took to win. 

Alex Hall, who won the event in 2022, threw tricks that only AHall can do. Off the jump, Hall put down a switch dub 14 to knuckle switch butter 3. At the end of the night, Hall finished in seventh. Troy Podmilsak, a Rookie Team athlete, showed he deserved to be there. Before the contest even started, TPod landed a worlds-first switch dub bio 1980. An unbelievable feat for the rookie, Podmilsak is leaving his first X games with a sixth place. 

But the night went to Forehand. On the last jump of the night, Forehand landed a 2160 Cuban, meaning he spun through the air five and a half times while grabbing the back tip of his ski. Landing the trick perfectly, the crowd went wild. Forehand skied to the bottom of the jump with his head in his hands, waiting for his score, in complete disbelief. Seconds later, a 50 showed up on the screen - a perfect score. Forehand, with the X Games gold medal around his neck now looks forward to the next contest at Mammoth Mountain later this week. 

David Wise won X Games gold to close out the 2023 X Games in Aspen, Colo. Wise, who has competed in over 14 X Games, is once again walking away from the event with another gold medal in his bag. Under the lights of Buttermilk Mountain, the men's SuperPipe was the last event of the busy X Games schedule. With tens of thousands of fans surrounding the 22-foot-tall halfpipe, U.S. Freeski Team athletes Wise, Birk Irving, Alex Ferreira and Aaron Blunk put on a show. 

With four chances to land a perfect run, it was anyone's game. Through the first run, Wise landed all his tricks and was showing serious amplitude and creativity. Next up was hometown favorite Alex Ferreira. Uncharacteristically of Ferreira, he hit the deck of the pipe on his last hit and fell while attempting his left double cork 1620. After a minute or so on the ground, he skied down safely. But on the second run, it happened again and he eventually pulled out of the contest. Ferreira now focuses on the next contest at Mammoth Mountain. 

Irving, who is coming away from a second place the week before in Calgary, Canada showed the crowd he was ready to go big. With a clean double flat spin 720 in the middle of his run and ending with a left dub 1440, Irving ended up in second place, securing an X Games silver medal. The night before, his sister, Svea Irving, won X Games bronze in the women's ski SuperPipe - closing out a successful weekend for the Irving siblings. 

Aaron Blunk, known by the X Games community as the only skier to throw five doubles in all four directions in his run in 2022, went big. On Blunk's last trip through the pipe, it looked like he was in the right position to knock Jon Sallinen out of third place but just came up short, ending the night in fourth place. 

But the night was ultimately won by Wise. Wise is now a five-time X Games gold medalist, having won the event in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018 and now 2023. Wise, whose run included a switch right 900 tail, switch left double cork 1080 japan, a right 900 tail and finished with mirror back-to-back dub 12 mutes, he had enough to secure the first place position. 

Now, the U.S. Freeski and Snowboard Teams are in Mammoth Mountain for the 2023 Toyota U.S. Grand Prix. 

RESULTS

U.S. Freeski Team athlete Svea Irving went big in the SuperPipe on Saturday night and ended the evening on the podium for the first time in her professional career. 

Irving came to the X Games as an alternate and left with a bronze medal. This is not only Irving's first X Games medal, it is her first ever podium at the professional level. As an alternate, you are not guaranteed a starting position. For Irving, she found out the night before the contest that she would have the opportunity to drop in, and she took it.

With the heavy snowfall significantly slowing down the pipe for all athletes, she managed to find her speed and amplitude and landed a very technical combo of tricks that eventually led her to be in the top three overall. On her final run through the pipe, matched with screams from the thousands of fans, Irving landed the alleyoop flat five to cork nine combo and walked away with an X Games Bronze. 

"I just won my first bronze medal at any big event ever," said Irving in disbelief. "I am absolutely speechless but very grateful to be on the podium with such great athletes. I am just so stoked to be here!" 

Along with Irving, teammates Hanna Faulhaber and Brita Sigourney also competed. Faulhaber, who won X Games Bronze at last years competition, ended the night in fifth and Sigourney, who has competed in 14 X Games in her career, was seventh. Zoe Atkin of Great Britain won Gold and Rachael Karker of Canada was Silver. 

Now Irving and the rest of the team, both men and women, travel to the west coast for the U.S. Toyota Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain. 

RESULTS

On Sunday, the Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team men’s speed team took on the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Cortina super-G track for the second day. The race was riveting and extremely difficult. There was a total of 21 did not finish racers. An unheard-of number for a speed event. This was due to a lot of trick turns on the terrain packed course.

“It helps to run at the end where you see some of the top guys go with those big trick turns and mistakes they were making,” commented Kyle Negomir on the tricky set.

Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team athlete Negomir led the way with a 28th place. Bryce Bennett was close behind in 29th and River Radamus and Ryan Cochran-Siegle were just out of the top 30 in 32nd and 35th. Erik Arvidsson landed in 36th place.

“I think today was a lot of tricks and traps in the course set so you had to be careful,” said Negomir. “I executed the hard sections well and at the bare minimum you needed that today.”

The day’s winner was once again Marco Odermatt of Switzerland. Second place went to Italian skier Dominik Paris, and third place went to Austrian skier Daniel Hemetsberger.

The men’s speed team will now take some rest days as they gear up for World Championships in Courchevel-Meribel France Feb. 6-19th.

RESULTS
Men's super-G

Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team athlete Mikaela Shiffrin finished second in the second slalom in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic, just .06 seconds out of first place, and clinched a seventh slalom crystal globe. Paula Moltzan added another top-10 result, finishing in eighth place.

"It is unbelieveable to secure the slalom globe already this season," said Shiffrin. "I have been working hard to get my slalom to a high level again and this season has been very special."

Shiffrin dominated the first run of slalom, but a deteriorating course and flat light hindered many of the racers in the second run. Lena Duerr of Germany took the win, with Zrinka Ljutic of Croatia in third place.

"If I get 86 wins this season it's only special, there is no pressure to do it, its more amazing considering if I am not taking all the risk I will not win the race, I need to be at my highest level," said Shiffrin. 

Moltzan continued to show her dominance this season, with her strong, consistent skiing placing her in the top seven in the overall slalom rankings. It is her fifth top-10 finish in slalom in 2022-23.

Shiffrin, the winningest woman alpine skier of all time with 85 Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup wins, is working toward number 86 to tie Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark as the winningest alpine ski racer ever. Stenmark’s record has held for 34 years. But the fight will wait for another day, with Shiffrin heading into the FIS World Championships, as World Champs results do not count toward the total.

With her result in Spindleruv, Shiffrin clinched her seventh slalom globe, making her the best slalom skier of the 2022-23 season. She last won the slalom globe in 2019. Shiffrin also currently holds the lead for the giant slalom globe (600 points over Lara Gut-Behrami's 482) and the overall lead (1697 points over Petra Vlhova's 966).

Lila Lapanja, Nina O’Brien and Ava Sunshine also raced, but did not qualify for second run. Zoe Zimmermann and Katie Hensien did not finish.

Next the women’s tech team will focus on World Championships Feb. 6-19 in Courchevel-Meribel, France

RESULTS
Women’s slalom

Jaelin Kauf led the Americans for the second night in a row under the lights at Val St. Come with a fourth place finish in the FIS Dual Moguls World Cup. Kauf dueled Britain’s Mikaela Gerken Schofield in a wild ride of a small final where both women pushed each other to their limits. At one point Kauf straddled a mogul but drew on her experience and strength to pull it back and ski in the line to beat Schofield over the finish. In the end, the judges gave it to Schofield who took third place. Japan’s Anri Kawamura won and France’s Perrine Laffont took second. 

“I’m tired,” commented Kauf from the finish area. “It’s bittersweet [to come in fourth], but I am stoked to be back in duals again after such a long time away from competition. I’m bummed to have made such a big mistake in that last run. I thought I was done there for a minute, but basically I just did everything I could to hang on and make it through.”

Elizabeth Lemley, who won her first dual moguls World Cup this season, skied an impressive run against Japan’s Haruka Nakao in the round of eight to advance to the quarterfinal. Lemley met Kauf in the quarterfinal in an American round of friendly fire, but came unstuck in the top section and ended the night in eighth. 

It was another strong showing for the women of the moguls team with seven qualifying for the round of eight: Kauf, Lemley, Alli Macuga, Tess Johnson, Olivia Giaccio, Hannah Soar and Lulu Shaffer. With a field so deep, several rounds of friendly fire knocked a few Americans out from the gate: Johnson lost to Kauf and Soar lost to Shaffer. 

Soar finished 10th, Macuga in 11th and Johnson in 13th.

Shaffer, in her first dual moguls World Cup, skied against Schofield in the quarterfinal, crossing the line first. Schofield took the advance and Shaffer finished in seventh.

Giaccio came up against Laffont in the quarterfinal. Both women went huge with their airs, but Laffont took the round. Giaccio finished in fifth. 

On the men’s side Nick Page and Cole McDonald qualified for the round of eight. Page met Kazakhstan’s Pavel Komolkav for a thrilling match. Both men were neck-in-neck the entire run. Although Page skied clean and fast to cross the line first, the round went to Komolkav and Page ended the night in ninth. 

McDonald was on the hunt for another duals podium. He beat Finland’s Severi Vierela in the round of eight to come up against Mikael Kingsbury in the quarterfinal. To beat the King you have to ski the run of your life, and McDonald took up the challenge with gusto. 

“This was my fourth time dueling Mikael, so I had a lot of experience going against him,” reflected McDonald. “I knew I had to give it my all. My goal in the start gate was to try to beat him across the line. I was just 0.1 seconds behind him; it was quite a close dual.” 

McDonald finished the night in seventh. 

Sweden’s Walter Wallberg won the night, Kingsbury took second and Sweden’s Filip Granefors took third. 

Dylan Walczyk finished 20th, Landon Wendler 27th and Dylan Marcellini 45th.

Moguls competes next on home snow at the Intermountain Health Freestyle International at Deer Valley Resort Feb. 2-4, 2023. 

RESULTS
Women’s Dual Moguls
Men’s Dual Moguls

Colby Stevenson was first and Mac Forehand second for the men's ski slopestyle contest on the second day of the X Games. Despite heavy snow that significantly slowed the skiers down throughout the four runs, Stevenson continued to raise the bar after every lap through the course. 

Of the 10 athletes competing, three were from the U.S. Freeski Team: Colby Stevenson, Alex Hall and Mac Forehand. Forehand secured his second X Games medal of his career with a silver in today's contest and was left speechless.

"I just walked away with a silver medal," said Forehand. "I can't really put what I'm feeling into words right now. I'm just so excited. Onto big air tomorrow night, let's go!"

This is the third X Games gold medal and second slopestyle medal of Stevenson's career. Last night, he was third in the men's ski knuckle huck. "This fuels the fire," he said. "Days like this, when I go out and put down my best runs - it makes me want to keep doing it until I can't. This is what dreams are made of baby!"

On a course that was tight, technical and did not provide any room for error, the athletes knew they had to land their tricks and get their rotations around. This type of course played to Stevenson's strengths as he performs best when he can get into his "flow state" and not have much time to think. 

Onto the next. Forehand and Hall will compete in the big air contest tomorrow to wrap up X Games and Stevenson will pack up to head to the next contest at Mammoth Mountain for the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix. 

Julia Kern advanced to the finals for the second consecutive weekend, finishing fifth in the FIS Cross Country World Cup classic sprint in Les Rousses, France Saturday.

After struggling to advance through the semifinals earlier this season, Kern seems to have hit her sprinting stride. Last weekend in Livigno, Italy, Kern was sixth in the individual freestyle sprint, then she partnered with Rosie Brennan to finish third in the team sprint. 

Saturday in Les Rousses, Kern was 10th in qualifying, then took commanding wins in her quarterfinal and semifinal heats. In the finals, she was well-placed midway through the race before Norway’s Kristine Stavaas Skistad, the day’s top qualifier, turned on the gas and skied away with the victory. Sweden’s Emma Ribom was second and Majam Dahlqvist was third.

Competing in her first World Cup sprint this season, Hailey Swirbul finished 12th after advancing to the semifinals as a Lucky Loser. Rosie Brennan was 17th. Jessie Diggins overcooked a corner in qualifying, went off course, and recovered, but missed qualifying in the top 30.

In the men’s race, Ben Ogden was seventh-fastest in qualifying. He won his opening quarterfinal but was not able to advance through the semifinals and finished 11th overall. 

World Cup racing continues Sunday in Les Rousses with a 20k classic mass start. The women race at 6:45 a.m. EST, and the men race at 8:45 a.m. EST. Both races will stream live on SkiandSnowboard.live.

RESULTS
Women’s classic sprint
Men’s classic sprint

STANDINGS
Women’s World Cup sprint
Men’s World Cup sprint
Women’s World Cup overall
Men’s World Cup overall

The Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team men’s speed took on an Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup super-G in Cortina, Italy Saturday. 

Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team athlete Ryan Cochran-Siegle led the way for the men’s team placing 21st. River Radamus had a fantastic race, and even with a large mistake and went from bib 58 to 27th place.

“I think I over-skied it. You can’t be too conservative on it,” said Cochran-Siegle. “It’s definitely a unique track to ski, but it’s fun.”

Kyle Negomir, Bryce Bennett and Erik Arvidsson also raced, placing 32nd, 35th and 36th place, respectively.

Swiss skier Marco Odermatt took the win on Saturday, after taking a short hiatus following a minor injury he sustained in Kitzbuhel, Austria. Second place went to Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway, and in third was Italian skier Mattia Casse.

The conditions were excellent, with some describing the snow as Colorado snow, with sunny skies above and a comfortable temperature. The men will take to the course Sunday for another shot on the Cortina track.

RESULTS
Men's super-G

HOW TO WATCH

Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023
3:15 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup, Women's slalom, run 1, Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic, streaming on skiandsnowboard.live 
6:15 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup, Women's slalom, run 2, Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic, streaming on skiandsnowboard.live 
4:15 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup, Men's super-G, Cortina, Italy, streaming on skiandsnowboard.live 

Mikaela Shiffrin continued her hot streak of wins in Spindleruv Mlyn on Saturday with her 85th career Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup victory, leaving her just one shy of 86 wins. Paula Moltzan was fifth.

Shiffrin smoked it down first run, taking the lead by 0.29 seconds ahead of German skier Lena Duerr. The strong skiing continued into second run with Shiffrin laying it down for the second-fastest second run time, taking the win by 0.60 seconds ahead of Lena Duerr in second and 1.31 seconds ahead of Wendy Holdener in third place.

“It has been so nice to come back here and race a slalom here,” said Shiffrin. “My feeling is so good on my skis right now. Even with a mistake on the course, I didn't care. I am going to keep going because I just want to ski like crazy."

Shiffrin is hot on the trail for the magic number of 87 World Cup wins, which will give her the most World Cup wins by any alpine skier ever, surpassing Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark record of 86, which she may tie on Sunday.

“I don’t feel a lot of pressure to get this record because now I am so close and I am trying to take a breather to enjoy the moment,” said Shiffrin.

Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team athlete Paula Moltzan also had a fantastic day in fifth place and the third fastest second run time.

“It was a pretty good second run,” said Moltzan. “I knew the tempo was really high top to bottom so I'm just staying with that tempo right out of the gate and I hope to carry this momentum into tomorrow,” said Moltzan.

Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team athletes Zoe Zimmerman, Nina O’Brien, Katie Hensien and Lila Lapanja also raced placing 31st, 34th, 36th and 38th. They did not qualify for a second run.

The women’s tech team will take on another slalom race Sunday before the World Championships in February.

RESULTS
Women's slalom

HOW TO WATCH

Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023
3:15 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup, Women's slalom, run 1, Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic, streaming on skiandsnowboard.live 
6:15 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup, Women's slalom, run 2, Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic, streaming on skiandsnowboard.live 
4:15 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup, Men's super-G, Cortina, Italy, streaming on skiandsnowboard.live