Besting a tough effort from reigning champ Bobby Brown, rookie Alex Schlopy won Winter X men's ski Big Air Saturday night. Brown took second. Sammy Carlson got the bronze, his second medal of the day after winning men's Slope earlier.
Schlopy earned a score of 92 with a switch double cork 14 and a double cork 16, a trick he'd never done before the contest. "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."
Brown's score of 89 left him in the second spot. After battling through an injury from the men's Slope earlier in the day, he was completely satisfied with his silver. "I hurt myself at Dew Tour in Vermont and it flared up again," Brown said. "But I felt good during the Big Air. I'm happy to be on the podium with these two guys." The injury was in a similar area to a broken pelvis that Brown sustained last March while filming in Idaho.
Sammy Carlson's score of 87, good enough for the bronze, might have been much higher if the triple flip that he was rumored to be thinking about had come out. "Bobby and I have both stomped triples before, but they were on much bigger jumps," said Carlson. "I was warming up for it, but I kept slipping on the takeoff. It was icy out, so I couldn't get a solid set."
Russ Henshaw had to withdraw from the contest after he injured himself attempting a switch triple rodeo 12 in training, giving the rest of the competitors pause when considering their own triple attempts. "I think everyone checked that out and thought, 'Man, I don't know if it's going to be big enough,'" Brown said. "I know we all hope that Russ is going to be okay."
Check full results here.