Langland, Corning Second at Visa Big Air presented by Toyota
Hailey Langland and Chris Corning were the top U.S. riders at the Visa Big Air presented by Toyota at Copper Mountain, both landing huge tricks that secured them second place finishes.
It was a balmy day of 12 degrees F compared to the freeski big air on Friday, which topped out at 0 degrees, and the athletes were welcomed to the finish each run by cheering fans at the base of Copper Mountain. Langland sent it to the moon on her first hit, putting down a cab 10 indy that had the crowd going wild. She backed it up with a switch back triple 16 Weddle, which secured her second place, finishing in between two Japanese riders: Mari Fukada in first and Miyabi Onitsuka in second.
Corning dropped a back 18 melon on his first hit and a switch back triple 16 Weddle, which held him in first place for the majority of the event, but Norwegian great Marcus Kleveland threw a nollie frontside off the toes 14 tail grab for his final trick—a trick no one had ever done in a contest before—to grab the win. Corning took second, while Ian Matteoli of Italy was third.
This was Corning’s second second place finish in a week, having securing the runner-up position at the Edmonton big air World Cup last week. “It’s a really good start to the season,” said Corning. “It is definitely a tough situation because I’m happy to be there, but I’m also not happy at all. It’s two second places in a row that I had a good chance of winning. I’m going to try to figure some stuff out and hopefully bring home a win in the next one.”
Julia Marino finished sixth, but scored the Visa Best Trick Award with a hugely progressive cab double 1080 nose grab. Kleveland took home the Visa Best Trick Award for the men.
Rounding out the rest of the U.S. Snowboard Team, Luke Winkelmann was seventh for the men and Courtney Rummel was eighth for the women. It was Rummel’s first time making finals in a big air World Cup.
The Visa Big Air presented by Toyota wraps the snowboarding portion at Copper. The team has a holiday break before the Kreischberg big air World Cup in Austria.
RESULTS
Women’s big air
Men’s big air
HOW TO WATCH
All times EST - Please refer to this link for most up-to-date schedule.
Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022
3:00 p.m. - Toyota U.S. Grand Prix freeski halfpipe finals - streaming LIVE on Outside
Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022
12:30 p.m. - Toyota U.S. Grand Prix snowboard halfpipe finals - tape delayed on NBC and simulcasted on Peacock
4:30 p.m. - Visa Big Air presented by Toyota freeski and snowboard finals - tape delayed on NBC and simulcasted on Peacock
Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022
5:00 p.m. - Toyota U.S. Grand Prix freeski halfpipe finals - tape delayed on NBC and simulcasted on Peacock
