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New Zealand’s Freeski Slopestyle athletes jumped into action this morning with Ben Barclay and Luca Harrington qualifying through to finals in sunny, calm conditions at the Livigno Snow Park.
Athletes had two attempts to put down a top-scoring run and needed to finish within the top 12 to earn a place in the finals. The slopestyle course features a technical rail section at the top, followed by three big jumps, providing a stage to show off creativity, bold tricks and standout style. Judges score runs on trick difficulty, amplitude, variety and execution.
Barclay was the first of the NZ men to drop into the course, looking solid through the rail section and stylish on the jumps to land a score of 73.36, which would have him sitting fourth after run one. However, a two-time Olympian and seasoned World Cup competitor, Barclay would know that there would be no time to rest on his laurels and run two would almost certainly see a shuffle in the rankings.
“It’s always a nervous wait when you drop near the front of the pack,” explained Barclay. “Even if your run goes well, you know there’s a lot of heavy-hitters to follow, so you’re never really guaranteed a spot in the finals. That 45-minute wait in the last run is always really scary.”
Harrington also came out of the start gate showing that he meant business, executing a technical rail section and stomping the jump line for a score of 69.70, putting him in sixth place with one run to go.
Youngest competitor in the field, 17-year-old Ball looked stylish on the rails up top before a slight bobble lost him a few points. Executing three solid jumps, his run one score of 44.91 initially put him just outside the top 12 in 14th place.
Run two would prove critical for all three Kiwi riders — Barclay and Harrington looking to protect their positions, and Ball needing a big push into the top 12.
Barclay appeared to have cleaned up his second run, flowing through the rails and sticking his landings, but the eagle-eyed judges caught a small error giving him a score of 65.70 which wouldn’t lift him any higher up the leaderboard.
Things didn’t quite go to plan for Harrington either. Coming off a rail early, he knew the rest of the run wouldn’t count and he could only wait to see whether his first-run score would hold.
“That was stressful,” admitted Harrington after the competition. “It’s hard to embrace the whole experience and be here at the Olympics and acknowledge how exciting and what a big achievement that is when you’re sitting in the bubble spot and you don’t know if you’re going to make finals which is what you really want.”
By the time Ball dropped in for the final run of the entire field, Barclay and Harrington could finally relax, their earlier scores securing them seventh and ninth place respectively. For Ball, it was all or nothing — he started strong on the rails but came off too early and knew the day was done. Ball finished in 20th place but was happy with his day.
“That was super fun,” he said. “I’m really glad to see the other two boys go through.”
Barclay confirmed that he was “so I’m stoked to be able to ski another day” and relieved to have the qualification round out of the way. “Qualifications day is always scarier than finals day.”
In the women’s qualifying round, Ruby Star Andrews finished in 17th place and Sylvia Trotter in 20th and did not qualify through to the finals. Coming back from a major injury — a dislocated hip just three months ago — Andrews was pleased to put down two clean runs today and is now shifting her focus to the Big Air competition next week.
“I’m just really happy to put a run down,” she said after the competition. “I’ve had a tough couple of weeks coming into the Games, so I’m really happy to land two runs. I really enjoyed today. I didn’t think I’d even be here, so to land a run on top of that feels good, and I’m really excited for Big Air next week.”
Ruby landed two runs, showing good trick variety and clean execution through the rails, but lost points after missing her grabs in the jump section on run one. Her score of 38.93 placed her 12th at the end of the first run, knowing she would need a cleaner second run to stay in contention for a finals spot. With top-ranked athletes such as China’s Eileen Gu crashing on their opening runs, it was clear that even a single clean run from those behind could push Andrews down the order.
Andrews was able to improve her score to 45.83 on run two, but it wouldn’t be enough for a top 12 finish.
18-year-old Trotter scored 24.30 on her first run, her execution a little messy through the rail section while she struggled with speed on her jumps. “I was happy to put a run down but knew there was lots of room for improvement,” she explained.
Tidying things up on run two, Trotter was able to improve her score, posting 35.58 to finish 20th.
“It felt so amazing to compete at my first Olympic Games, vibes are through the roof,” Trotter shared.
Freeski Slopestyle Finals for Barclay and Harrington take place on Tuesday 12.30pm local time, Wednesday 12.30am NZT.