Men's freeski big air final preview: Hall, Americans shoot for podium

Twelve freeskiers compete for gold Wednesday in the men's big air final at the 2022 Winter Olympics, and NBC and Peacock will be there to capture it all.

Americans Alex Hall, Colby Stevenson and Mac Forehand each threw down impressive runs to claim three of the top eight spots in Monday's qualifying. Norway's Birk Ruud enters as the top qualifier.

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Hall used his signature Buick grab, a trick he invented himself, on all three runs to take second with a combined score of 180.25. The reigning X Games champion opened with a huge switch 1800, improving the same trick on Run 3, and stomped a 1980 in between on Run 2.

Stevenson combined a switch 1800 Cuban grab on Run 2 with a nosebutter 1620 double grab on Run 1 to place fifth, while Forehand, runner-up behind Hall at last month's X Games, posted the competition's best Run 2 score of 92.00 with a stylish switch 1800 double grab Cuban to Japan for eighth.

SEE MORE: Meet the Athletes: Alex Hall

Ruud, third at October's Big Air Chur, landed a massive switch triple cork 1980 on his first run, the competition's top individual score, and then a huge 1800 mute grab on Run 3. Sweden's Oliwer Magnusson and Henrik Harlaut made it through to the final a respective third and fourth.

Hall, 23, is a podium contender in both big air and slopestyle. His current season has been nothing but impressive. After a sixth-place finish at Big Air Chur in October and failing to qualify for the slopestyle final at the Stubai World Cup, he posted back-to-back runner-up finishes at December's Steamboat Big Air and Dew Tour in slopestyle, then won Mammoth Grand Prix slopestyle before X Games big air.

A big air victory in the event's Games debut would make Hall its first Olympic champion and earn him his first medal. Hall was born in Alaska and grew up in Switzerland before moving back to the U.S. at 16.

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SEE MORE: How to watch Freestyle Skiing at the 2022 Winter Olympics on NBC and Peacock