Snowboarding 2018/Men's slopestyle

Men's slopestyle
General information
Sport	Snowboarding 2018
Date	10-11 February 2018
Competitors	37 athletes
Venue	Phoenix Snow Park
Previous medalists
Gold	Sage Kotsenburg
Silver	Staale Sandbech
Bronze	Mark McMorris
Conditions
Temperature	Day 1: -2°C / 28.4°F Day 2: -13°C / 8.6°F
Length	690 metres
Height	163 metres
Forerunners
Forerunner	Won Young-kyo South Korea
Forerunner	Kim Gyeon-guk South Korea
Forerunner	Lee Joon-sik South Korea
Medalists
	Redmond Gerard
	Max Parrot
	Mark McMorris

The men's slopestyle of Snowboarding 2018 during the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 10-11 February 2018 in the Phoenix Snow Park. With 37 athletes competing, the event was won by Redmond Gerard from USA, with Max Parrot from Canada taking the silver medal and Mark McMorris from Canada taking bronze.

Format

The competition exists out of two separate rounds. Each competitor performs twice in the qualification, with the athletes with the six best scores of each qualification (in either run) advancing to the final. The athletes advancing to the final get three runs, with the best score in any run counting towards the final ranking. The competitor with the highest score in any run in the final is the winner.

Preview

Thirty-seven athletes qualified for the event and this event's second appearance at the Olympic Games would for sure get a new Olympic gold medalist. With Marcus Kleveland and Mark McMorris, the top-ranked competitors of the world ranking would be the ones to watch, but there were many athletes who would be trying to grab this golden opportunity in a pretty open field. However, the competition mainly seemed to be between the snowboarders from Norway, the United States, and Canada. Norway was represented by four athletes out of the top 11 in the world, with Kleveland heading the charge, before Staale Sandbech, Torgeir Bergrem, and Mons Roisland. The United States had Chris Corning, Redmond Gerard, and Ryan Stassel who could cause an upset, and Canada was also very strong with McMorris, Sebastien Toutant, Max Parrot, and Tyler Nicholson. Sandbech and McMorris would look to improve their medal-winning performances of four years prior.

Japan fully set their sights on the younger generation, with Hiroaki Kunitake and Yuri Okubo being the youngest two competitors of the field. Lee Min-sik, Redmond Gerard, and Niek van der Velden were also still younger than 18 years old. Veteran Peetu Piiroinen was the oldest competitor, nearing 30 years old, and one of only two athletes with two previous Olympic appearances. 25 competitors would be making their Olympic debut.

Summary

Qualification

Chris Corning kicked off the competition with a decent run, already scoring over 70 points. This proved to be a good omen for the rest of the qualification, with Sebastien Toutant, Marcus Kleveland, Carlos Garcia Knight, Mons Roisland, and Jamie Nicholls all scoring back-to-back scores of higher than 70. However, despite the strong start of the first qualification, most of the riders made vital mistakes, forcing them to have to take risks in the second run.

The second run followed the same order as the first run, with Corning having to take some risks to climb that few places to qualify. Because of a mistake at the start of the run, he just fell short of his previous score, failing to qualify. The pressure was also on for Torgeir Bergrem, who was able to recover from the disappointment of his first run. In general, only a few riders were able to improve on their previous scores, with Bergrem and Niklas Mattsson qualifying with a last push, and Vlad Khadarin, Rene Rinnekangas, Kalle Jarvilehto, and Moritz Thoenen just improving on their scores for the statistics. Two of the youngest competitors, Lee Min-sik and Niek van der Velden, withdrew before the competition.

Qualification 1 Results
Rank	Nat.	Name	Run 1	Run 2
1		Marcus Kleveland	83.71	32.30
2		Carlos Garcia Knight	80.10	40.20
3		Sebastien Toutant	78.01	45.06
4		Mons Roisland	76.50	43.68
5		Torgeir Bergrem	45.80	75.45
6		Niklas Mattsson	50.81	73.53
7		Roope Tonteri	72.60	38.08
8		Jamie Nicholls	71.56	36.90
9		Chris Corning	70.85	69.86
10		Peetu Piiroinen	69.26	43.43
11		Vlad Khadarin	23.05	64.16
12		Sebbe De Buck	59.40	29.58
13		Rene Rinnekangas	24.86	37.91
14		Michael Schaerer	37.61	27.01
15		Kalle Jarvilehto	15.56	31.10
16		Moritz Thoenen	19.53	23.55
17		Ryan Stassel	23.50	22.63
-		Lee Min-sik	DNS	DNS
-		Niek van der Velden	DNS	DNS

The second qualification had a very explosive start, with four out of the first five riders scoring far over 70 points, with only opening rider Tyler Nicholson failing to perform. Weather and wind conditions on the difficult course proved very difficult during the rest of the first run, with only favorite Max Parrot and Clemens Millauer being able to receive a score of over 60 points. The conditions also got the better of Mans Hedberg, who crashed hard, and had to be treated on the snow for several minutes.

Many competitors would be poised to improve their score for the second run. The Canadian snowboarders Parrot, Mark McMorris, and Nicholson proved why the country has bought up so many exceptional riders, with scores of around 80. Staale Sandbech was also able to step up his game, reaching a score of 80 points, securing himself of qualification, at the cost of Millauer. The second run of the second qualification only had a single athlete outside of the top 6 scoring over 60 points, with Yuri Okubo finishing eighth in the qualification.

Qualification 2 Results
Rank	Nat.	Name	Run 1	Run 2
1		Max Parrot	83.45	87.36
2		Mark McMorris	83.70	86.83
3		Redmond Gerard	82.55	57.11
4		Staale Sandbech	74.11	82.13
5		Tyler Nicholson	17.41	79.21
6		Seppe Smits	78.36	41.48
7		Clemens Millauer	75.65	77.45
8		Yuri Okubo	24.45	75.05
9		Jonas Boesiger	18.68	58.26
10		Billy Morgan	56.40	37.55
11		Kyle Mack	45.26	53.55
12		Matias Schmitt	50.86	20.68
13		Mans Hedberg	46.25	DNS
14		Hiroaki Kunitake	39.45	43.16
15		Petr Horak	41.93	39.05
16		Nicolas Huber	34.25	36.90
17		Stef Vandeweyer	33.75	21.16
18		Rowan Coultas	23.20	23.58

Final

The final had the two powerhouse nations face off right against each other, with Norway and Canada both having four snowboarders in the final. Many athletes would have to take risks in order to win a medal, and this became very clear in the first run. With a lot of small mistakes, the first snowboarder to get a decent score of over 70 was Carlos Garcia Knight, as the beginning of the barrage of the pre-race favorites Marcus Kleveland and Mark McMorris. With only three athletes reaching a score of more than 60 points after a single run, the pressure was high for the remainder of the final.

The second run had significantly higher scores overall, with the first riders Niklas Mattsson, Seppe Smits, and Tyler Nicholson improving their score by over 30 points. With all these high scores, the top of the provisional standings looked completely different than after the first run, with Mark McMorris now leading, before Staale Sandbech and Carlos Garcia Knight, the first two of whom received a score of over 80 points. The difference between the top 5 had now decreased to only 10 points, as opposed to almost 30 points after the first run.

The last run was all risk-and-reward for a final push for the podium. Even though the reigning medalists were on pole position for the medals once again, no position was certain. However, only two competitors were able to make a significant impact on the rankings, with outsider Redmond Gerard taking top spot halfway through the last run, and Garcia Knight and Kleveland making big mistakes in an ultimate attempt to reclaim a podium position. Max Parrot, the best performer in the qualifications, was only the fourth athlete all day to receive a score of over 80 points, beating compatriot McMorris for a silver medal. Staale Sandbech finished just outside of the podium, after his silver medal of four years prior. Mons Roisland withdrew from the final before the competition.

Final Results
Rank	Nat.	Name	Run 1	Run 2	Run 3
1		Redmond Gerard	43.33	46.40	87.16
2		Max Parrot	45.13	49.48	86.00
3		Mark McMorris	75.30	85.20	60.68
4		Staale Sandbech	44.81	81.01	38.13
5		Carlos Garcia Knight	78.60	52.98	24.35
6		Marcus Kleveland	77.76	43.71	37.18
7		Tyler Nicholson	36.18	76.41	76.15
8		Torgeir Bergrem	58.80	75.80	60.03
9		Niklas Mattsson	38.43	74.71	42.48
10		Seppe Smits	31.11	69.03	66.18
11		Sebastien Toutant	33.66	57.23	61.08
12		Mons Roisland	DNS	DNS	DNS

Results

Winning the gold medal, Redmond Gerard became the first Olympic (gold) medalist to have been born in the 21st century. Behind him, the podium was filled with Canadian athletes. Max Parrot won his first Olympic medal after placing fifth in 2014, while Mark McMorris repeated her result of Sochi, winning bronze. Behind McMorris, the silver medalist of 2014 Staale Sandbech finished right next to the podium, with New Zealand's Carlos Garcia Knight having the best result of a snowboarder from his country ever.

Result	Athlete	Nationality
	Redmond Gerard	United States
	Max Parrot	Canada
	Mark McMorris	Canada
4	Staale Sandbech	Norway
5	Carlos Garcia Knight	New Zealand
6	Marcus Kleveland	Norway
7	Tyler Nicholson	Canada
8	Torgeir Bergrem	Norway
9	Niklas Mattsson	Sweden
10	Seppe Smits	Belgium
11	Sebastien Toutant	Canada
12	Mons Roisland	Norway
13	Clemens Millauer	Austria
14	Yuri Okubo	Japan
15	Roope Tonteri	Finland
16	Jamie Nicholls	Great Britain
17	Chris Corning	United States
18	Peetu Piiroinen	Finland
19	Vlad Khadarin	Olympic Athletes from Russia
20	Sebbe de Buck	Belgium
21	Jonas Boesiger	Switzerland
22	Billy Morgan	Great Britain
23	Kyle Mack	United States
24	Matias Schmitt	Argentina
25	Mans Hedberg	Sweden
26	Hiroaki Kunitake	Japan
27	Petr Horak	Czech Republic
28	Rene Rinnekangas	Finland
29	Michael Schaerer	Switzerland
30	Nicolas Huber	Switzerland
31	Stef Vandeweyer	Belgium
32	Kalle Jarvilehto	Finland
33	Rowan Coultas	Great Britain
34	Moritz Thoenen	Switzerland
35	Ryan Stassel	United States
-	Lee Min-sik	South Korea
-	Niek van der Velden	Netherlands