Alex Schlopy nails men’s ski Big Air gold at Winter X Games 15
Alex Schlopy could not have hoped for a better night than the one he got to live on the 29th of January. He had just won the Winter X men’s ski Big Air at Winter X Games 15 (WX 15). Bobby Brown took him the silver medal. Sammy Carlson celebrated his second
medal of the day after winning the bronze.
The night belonged to a WX rookie from Utah, Alex Schlopy. Son of Holly Flanders, a two-time Olympian and three-time World Cup downhill winner, Schlopy had a difficult quest ahead of him to live up to his mother’s name. What better way to take off than to
get a WX gold to his name? The 18-year-old dominated the event with his switch double and wobble 14’s, forward dub cork 14’s, putting a cherry with a fantastic double cork 1620. He stayed on top with the score of 92.
“Once you get up top, you're just hanging there and stuff kind of just happens,” said Schlopy. “I saw a couple people try that 16 and I just had to try it, too. And it worked out.”
Breckenridge’s pride, and the reigning champion from last year, Bobby Brown had to settle for second position this year after losing the gold to Schlopy’s magical jump. The 19-year-old had participated in men’s SlopeStyle earlier in the day and had suffered
an injury which meant he was unable to give his 100 percent at Big Air. Determined to redeem himself after missing the podium in slope, Brown pulled off some dub cork 14’s and the switch double misty 14, a trick that had carried him home last year. Brown’s
final score of 89 aided him to secure the silver medal.
Satisfied with the results, Brown said, “I hurt myself at Dew Tour in Vermont and it flared up again. But I felt good during the Big Air. I'm happy to be on the podium with these two guys.”
Oregon’s stylish Sammy Carlson took home the bronze after treating the crowd to a barrage of breath taking tricks and securing a score of 87. These tricks included a switch double misty 12 and switch double 10’s. The spectators expressed their desire to
watch him pull off a triple but Carlson decided to play it safe, explaining in the post-final interview that there wasn’t enough amplitude for such a manoeuvre.
The Swiss skier, Elias Ambuhl, found himself at the fourth position with his score of 83. Occupying the fifth position was Sweden’s Jacob Wester with a score of 30. The 23-year-old had withdrawn from the contest after suffering the nastiest crash of the
night while attempting a dub cork 16.
The Big Air contest was one of the most anticipated event at WX as last year’s contest had witnessed some of the most exclusive and sensational tricks to have ever been pulled on jumps. After a Triple Cork from Torstein Horgmo in Snowboard Big Air, everyone
was wondering if the big dogs of skiing, namely Sammy Carlson, Russ Henshaw or Bobby Brown would attempt to bring the trick to this event. It is possible that Russ Henshaw’s injury while attempting a switch triple rodeo 12 during training may have caused rest
of the competitors to realize that the jump did not provide enough amplitude for executing dicey tricks.
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