Forehand, Hall Go Silver, Bronze at World Champs
The first freeski event of the 2025 FIS Ski Freestyle World Championships wrapped up, with Mac Forehand and Alex Hall sharing the slopestyle podium. Forehand won the silver and Hall the bronze. The United States finished with four men in the top eight, a huge accomplishment in a stacked slopestyle field.
After a week of prime conditions in Corvatsch, Switzerland, the slopestyle finals were moved earlier to squeeze in before an incoming weekend storm. In qualifications on Wednesday, six of seven athletes punched their ticket to finals: Forehand, Hall, Hunter Henderson, Troy Podmilsak, Marin Hamill and Grace Henderson.
Forehand and Hall shared the podium for the second time this season, joined by Norway’s Birk Ruud in the gold medal spot. After failing to put together a clean first run, Forehand, Hall and Hunter Henderson all needed to lace their second go. Podmilsak and Hunter Henderson both sat in third after their second runs before being bumped down to finish in seventh and eighth, respectively.
Forehand had an impressive second run, with judges loving his first rail combo - a right back swap transfer, pretzel 240 out - giving it the highest score of the day. They also loved his second jump, a switch left triple 1620 mute. Hall answered well, putting together an tricky first rail combo: a switch right tails on, tails over transfer, blind 450 out. Hall was the only athlete in the field using the transition feature so progressively, getting two hits out of it instead of just one. Hall talked about his approach to World Championships, saying, “My strategy lately has just been to go for the run I really feel like doing, having fun doing it and trying the hardest rail tricks I can think of.”
It is Forehand’s first World Championship medal and Hall’s second. Forehand reflected on sharing the podium with a teammate, saying, “My teammates are like my brothers at this point. With Alex up there with me today, it’s like having a brother with me, I really enjoyed it.”
On the women’s side, Grace Henderson finished ninth and Marin Hamill 11th. Both were stoked to put down a clean run when it counted and walk away from the season healthy and in high spirits. Switzerland's own Mathilde Gremaud finished first, with Austria's Lara Wolf in second and Canada's Megan Oldham in third.
Next up, the same squad will throw down in big air qualifications. Women’s qualifications are scheduled for Wednesday, March 26 and men’s on Thursday, March 27. Finals are on the March 29. Halfpipe qualifications are scheduled for Friday, March 28, with finals on March 30.
