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Action returned to the Livigno Snow Park for the qualifying rounds of the men’s and women’s snowboard slopestyle, with Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Dane Menzies coming away as the top qualifiers.
With bad weather in the forecast, the competition was brought forward by one day, allowing athletes to compete under blue skies with cold temperatures that kept the course running fast. The men were first to drop.
Dane Menzies wasted no time getting the job done. Second on course, he put the hammer down, combining strong trick variety and clean execution through the rail section before linking a polished jump line — switch backside 1260 into frontside 1440, finishing with a 1660. His score of 86.06 put him in the top spot, and there he stayed.
“It felt pretty good for sure, I definitely was not expecting that,” said Menzies. “I didn’t expect the judges to score that high, but they’re liking my selection of rails, so that’s good.
“I was a bit stressed last night after the schedule change,” he continued. “I’m happy to put a run down after kind of a brutal training session. I’m stoked and hopefully looking good for finals, I’m excited.”
In his first run of two, Rocco Jamieson came off the first rail early but carried speed and style through the rest of the course, landing a 1660 on jump one, a 1440 on jump two and a 1080 on the final hit. His opening score of 56.56 reflected the early mistake, putting him under pressure to land a cleaner second run to secure qualification.
He tidied up the rail section on his second run and looked composed through the jumps, but lost control on the landing of his final trick, spinning out on the landing. He would finish outside the top 12 in 18th place.
“It just wasn’t my day for it,” said Jamieson. “Speed was a bit of an issue for me today. I thought I had way less speed than I did on that last landing.”
Despite the disappointment, he was quick to praise teammate Dane Menzies, describing his run as “incredible” and adding that “he deserved every point.”
Lyon Farrell posted a solid first run for a score of 68.61, initially placing him ninth. However, as other riders improved on their second attempts, he slipped down the standings. Unable to lift his score on his final run, Farrell finished 15th overall.
“So close - I’m a little bummed out, but that’s the way it goes,” he said. “I think I had a run that could have made finals if I’d landed it a bit cleaner, but that’s the way it goes. I was in the bubble spot for most of the first run, but got bumped out and knew what I had to do, it’s just unfortunate that it didn’t work out.”
In the women’s qualifying rounds, defending Olympic champion Zoi Sadowski-Synnott made an immediate statement, posting an opening score of 81.73 to move into second place.
Sadowski-Synnott flowed through the course with stylishly executed tricks, looking composed in the air and holding on to her grabs. Opting for a measured approach in her first run — a 1080 followed by back-to-back 900s on the jumps — Sadowski-Synnott impressed the judges with consistent execution across each section. She went bigger on run two, adding a 1260 to her jump line and lifting her score to 88.08 to take over first place.
“It feels really good to land,” said Sadowski-Synnott. “There was a lot of pressure going into today, but I’m just grateful that we got good weather so that all the girls could show their best snowboarding.
“I was pretty stressed when I found out they were going to bring qualies a day forward and it meant one less day of practice but those changes come with our sport, we deal with the weather so much, so we just had to roll with it.”
Lucia Georgalli, meanwhile, needed to capitalise on her second attempt after sitting 17th following run one. An early slip on the rails and incomplete grabs had cost her valuable points, leaving clear areas to tidy up. Georgalli delivered a cleaner second run, but it wasn’t enough to move her into the top 12 and secure a place in the final.
Georgalli explained how it played out for her and the positives she takes from her Olympic experience.
"My first run I missed out on my first two rails, but then I ended up getting my underflip out of the rail and landed my jumps, so that was good. My second run I was feeling really good. I really just wanted to land a run and I said to myself, I’m at the Olympics, I’ve got to enjoy it and take it all in.
"So I took a deep breath, and I really enjoyed the run, I was singing in the middle, it was so fun. I’m just hyped to land both my runs in qualies. I always want to be having fun while I’m competing, that’s a really important thing for me. So to enjoy that second run makes me very happy. It’s a really good experience.”