Olympic Freestyle Skiing Schedule 2018: Live Stream for Sunday's Events

Jonathon Lillis is looking to become the first United States champion in the men's aerials since Eric Bergoust in 1998.

Lillis, who was the only one of three American competitors to advance to Sunday's final, enters the final three jumps of the event in first place.

The 23-year-old earned a mark of 127.44 in qualifying to earn the right to start last in the competition, which experienced some unexpected early eliminations.

He'll have to match and improve that score with a field of contenders, led by two Chinese skiers, motivated to capture gold from a wide-open field.

Sunday Freestyle Skiing Schedule

Men's Aerials (6 a.m. ET)

Women's Halfpipe Qualification (8 p.m. ET, event takes place on Monday, February 19 in Pyeongchang, South Korea)

All events can be live-streamed on NBCOlympics.com.

Lillis Enters Final as Unexpected Leader

No one expected Lillis to top the qualification rounds given his performance on the World Cup circuit this season. 

Although he hasn't been terrible, Lillis also hasn't made a name for himself in the events leading up to Pyeongchang. 

The 23-year-old is 10th in the World Cup rankings, and he has two top-10 finishes to his name from a pair of sixth-place marks, including one on home soil in Deer Valley, Utah, on January 12.

Despite all of his struggles over the last few months, Lillis is the defending world champion in men's aerials, a title he won in Sierra Nevada, Spain, last March.

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The other two medalists from the 2017 World Championships are also in the field for Sunday's final, with China's Qi Guangpu entering as the No. 2 qualifier and Australia's David Morris in eighth.

Expect Lillis to use his championship experience from a year ago to ease the nerves from participating in the Olympic final and keep him in medal contention.

More important than any past results Lillis put up is who he's competing for at the Olympics, as he's carrying his brother's ashes in a glass pendant around his neck, per Today. Lillis' young brother Mikey died unexpectedly in October.

"It was all of our dreams to compete in the Olympics together, and knowing that he never got the chance ... it felt like the best way to give him that experience," Lillis said. "And to keep him close during those events, because he obviously won’t be there."

Lillis was hoping to compete alongside his other brother Chris, who is also a skier, but he suffered an ACL injury in December that kept him off the U.S. Olympic roster.

Competition for Medal Positions is Wide Open

Three of the top five athletes in the World Cup standings failed to qualify for Sunday's final.

The absences of World Cup leader Maxim Burov, defending Olympic champion Anton Kushnir and Maxim Gustik leave the door open for the potential of a few unlikely medalists.

China boasts the two Olympic finalists who are in the top five of the World Cup standings in Qi and Jia Zongyang.

LOIC VENANCE/Getty Images

With Burov, Kushnir and Gustik out of the running for gold, the Chinese pair is expected to push Lillis to his limits in search of the country's first aerials title in 2006. China is also attempting to extend its run of three straight medalists in the event.

Although he qualified in eighth place, Morris has to be considered a medal threat with a silver from Sochi already on his mantle.

If you're looking for an underdog to root for, Switzerland's Mischa Gasser is your man. The 26-year-old is 27th in the World Cup rankings and hasn't placed higher than 11th in World Cup events this season.

Gasser's father and stepmother cycled around the world to watch him compete in Pyeongchang, per Reuters' Lucien Libert.

Women Open Halfpipe Competition

American Brita Sigourney, who leads the World Cup standings in women's ski halfpipe, is one of the names to watch as the competition opens with two qualification runs on Sunday night.

Sigourney is one of five Americans in the top seven of the World Cup standings, and she'll be joined by defending Olympic champion Maddie Bowman as the top medal contenders in the event.

Devin Logan and Annalisa Drew are two other American medal threats in a competition that could feature an United States sweep of the medal podium on Monday night.

If that occurs, it would be the second American medal sweep in freestyle skiing after the success in the men's slopestyle four years ago in Sochi.

Canada's Cassie Sharpe and China's Zhang Kexin have the potential to kill the dreams of an American sweep, and there's a decent chance both could challenge Bowman and Sigourney for gold.

Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90.

Statistics obtained from Olympic.org and FIS-Ski.com.