ASPEN – After some disappointment on the slopestyle course Thursday, Summit County resident snowboarder Chris Corning will get a chance for redemption on the big air jump Friday afternoon.
Corning will drop in Friday in search of his first X Games Aspen medal. After shining in the spotlight by landing the quad-cork 1800 on a special scaffolding at the Atlanta Braves’ baseball park last month, Corning is all the rage in big air snowboarding. But he’ll have to qualify as one of the top six snowboarders from a loaded field of nine riders, including names like Darcy Sharpe, Yuki Kadono and Max Parrot.
And then there’s Michigan native and Silverthorne resident Kyle Mack. The 22-year-old is back at X Games big air two years after he won a silver medal for the U.S. at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. He did so by landing his one-of-a-kind, wildly stunning “Bloody Dracula” trick.
As for Corning, it seemed on Thursday his X Games injury demons came back to haunt him when he pulled up on the second jump on the slopestyle course and landed awkwardly on a flat. With his history of hip, back and foot injuries, it was a scary moment where it seemed he may be knocked out of big air Friday. But it turned out to be a slight tweak of his knee, and Corning said after the competition he’d be good for big air Friday.
For the 20-year-old, it’ll be the latest chance to prove all his special strength & conditioning work in the offseason, specifically to prep his body for the rigors of big air, was worth it.
FRIDAY’S SCHEDULE
Noon-1:30 p.m: Men’s ski slopestyle elimination
1:30-2:15 p.m.: Men’s snowboard big air elimination
5-6 p.m.: Snowmobile freestyle final
6:30-7:15 p.m.: Women’s ski big air final
7:15-8:15 p.m.: Men’s ski superpipe elimination
8:35-9:20 p.m.: Men’s ski big air final
9:30-10 p.m.: Men’s snowboard superpipe session (best trick) final
X Games coverage:
Competition previews:
The lead-up to X Games: