The elimination round for the Men’s Ski Slopestyle discipline at X Games Aspen 2015 turned some heads on Thursday afternoon (January 22) in Aspen, Colorado.
The bar was set pretty high after Alex Bellemare took his first run, scoring 86.00. However, this was not the highlight of the competition. Heads began to turn when Olympic silver medalist Gus Kenworthy fell on his second run, scoring only a 7.66, which put him on the bubble to make it into the finals. The biggest shock of all was when defending gold medalist Nick Goepper scored 76.00 on his first run and 35.00 on his second run, putting him on the outside looking in for the finals. Tom Wallisch came out strong qualifying first in the Men’s Ski Slopestyle elimination round, scoring 89.66.
The eight athletes that will be competing in the Men’s Ski Slopestyle Finals include Tom Wallisch (89.66), Joss Christensen (88.00), Alex Bellmare (86.00), Bobby Brown (83.33), Henrik Harlaut (82.33), James Woods (81.66), Alex Beaulieu-Marchand (78.00), and Gus Kenworthy (77.00).
CS4U caught up with Joss Christensen after he qualified second in eliminations. In our interview, the 23-year-old Olympic gold medalist talks about qualifying into the finals, his strategy to win gold on Saturday, and his experience at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Check out the video below.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcRO1m_EfM8]
Joss Christensen Interview
After today’s results, here’s who we think will make the podium in the Men’s Ski Slopestyle Finals:
1st Place- Tom Wallisch– Tom won Gold at the 2012 Aspen Winter X Games and he also placed first in qualifiers today. If Tom is able to keep this up, we think he has a great shot for winning Gold this year.
2nd Place- Joss Christensen– Joss has no medals in the X Games, however he won gold in Sochi. Since Joss did win gold we think he is definitely going to come and get ready to place. He also placed second in qualifiers today. We think he is going to get the silver.
3rd place- Alex Bellemare– Even though Alex does not have any medals at Winter Games Aspen, he placed third at qualifiers today. We feel as if Alex is hungry to place this year and if he keeps this up he definitely will. Alex placed 4th at Winter X Games Aspen 2013. We think Alex is going to take bronze this year.
What are your thoughts on our predictions for the Men’s Ski Slopestyle finals? Make sure to see who snags the medals on Saturday, January 24th beginning at 1PM ET on ABC.
