Men's Snowboarding Slopestyle Olympics 2014: Breaking Down Sochi Finalists
Even though the Opening Ceremony has not yet taken place, there are already 16 snowboarders who have qualified for the slopestyle final, with eight more spots up for grabs. The day started with 23 women and 29 men, but the majority of them will have to wade out of the scrum in the semifinal to have a chance at medaling.
Slopestyle is an established event at the Winter X Games, but is making its inaugural appearance as a medal event in Sochi, which is nine hours ahead of Eastern Time. If you want to be at all surprised when you watch the replay on NBC, then you should be aware there are a ton of spoilers below. Here is a look at the finalists in men's slopestyle, with more set to be decided on Feb. 8.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Biggest Headline: No Shaun White
Shaun White took the gold in half-pipe at the 2006 and 2010 Olympics, and he's fully focused on making it three straight this year. We know he's fully focused on that because he dropped out of the slopestyle competition on Feb. 5, one day before the qualifying heats took place.
White said the decision was made to avoid injury on the difficult course, according to the Associated Press: "With the practice runs I have taken, even after course modifications and watching fellow athletes get hurt, the potential risk of injury is a bit too much for me to gamble my other Olympics goals on." White had hurt his wrist in slopestyle practice one day before withdrawing.
Not only did that deprive U.S. fans of a chance to watch White, one of the few Olympic stars, apply his craft, the late decision whittled the U.S. down to three competitors in the men's event.
As White's U.S. teammate Chas Guldemond phrased it, via Rachel Axon of USA Today: "There was a lot of guys that I trained really hard with sitting in that fifth spot. It's pretty unfortunate that they missed their opportunity to come to the Games, so that was a pretty big blow. I'm surprised that he pulled out so late."
Bottom line: White had better take gold in the halfpipe or he'll have devastated his country in two different events.
Men's Slopestyle
| Name | Country | Qualifying Score |
| Staale Sandbech | Norway | 94.50 (Heat 1) |
| Peetu Piiroinen | Finland | 90.75 (Heat 1) |
| Sebastien Toutant | Canada | 87.25 (Heat 1) |
| Jamie Nicholls | Great Britain | 86.75 (Heat 1) |
| Max Parrot | Canada | 97.50 (Heat 2) |
| Roope Tonteri | Finland | 95.75 (Heat 2) |
| Sven Thorgren | Sweden | 94.25 (Heat 2) |
| Gjermund Braaten | Norway | 91.25 (Heat 2) |
After seeing the early returns from slopestyle qualifying, it seems the injury and course concerns may have been much ado about nothing. Riders enjoyed ideal conditions and several of them posted sterling scores amidst the abundant sunshine.
Canada's Maxence Parrot is just 19 years old, but he's coming off gold medals in slopestyle and big air at the 2014 Winter X Games. He also posted the best score of the day in the new Olympic event, and he's the man to beat in the final.
Other competitors who qualified directly for the final are Canadian Sebastien Toutant, Finland's Roope Tonteri and Peetu Piiroinen, Norway's Gjermund Braaten and Staale Sandbech, Sven Thorgren of Sweden and Jamie Nicholls from Great Britain.
Chas Guldemond of the United States narrowly missed out on a berth in the final and finished barely behind Nichols. His fellow Americans Sage Kotsenburg and Ryan Stassel (who is very appropriately nicknamed "Razzle Dazzle") finished eighth and ninth respectively in Heat 2, meaning all three remaining American men will be battling the crowded field for one of the four remaining spots in the final.
They will also have to hold off Canadian Mark McMorris who was one of the favorites in the event. McMorris will be battling the pack and his neighboring countrymen for a chance to sneak into the final.
You can catch the men's slopestyle semifinal at 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 8 with the final at 3:45 a.m. NBC will show the event on tape delay in primetime, but you can look for live action on NBCOlympics.com or on the NBC Sports Live Extra app.
Justified Injury Concerns
In a clear display of the type of accident White was worried about, Norway's Kjersti Buaas took a very hard spill and posted the lowest score in Heat 1 of women's qualifying, but she appeared to be just fine afterwards, at least according to her Twitter account.
Buaas turned in the lowest score in Heat 1, but two other competitors scored lower in Heat 2. However, no one had a more spectacular crash on the first day and it is very fortunate that she is all right. Such a crash for Shaun White that might have knocked him out of the Olympics altogether would have been a nightmare scenario.
Instead, the final is shaping up to be a showdown of Canadians Parrot, Toutant and possibly McMorris against the rest of the world.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
