The first day of the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix and Visa Big Air snowboard and freeski competition on Wednesday, Dec. 13, featured high-flying, competitive action throughout the day that was worthy of several highlight reels. The second day was no different.

After professional freeskiers properly warmed up the Copper Mountain Resort superpipe on Day 1 of the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix, professional snowboarders took to the pipe on Day 2 while the freeskiers took to the big air jump.

Women’s freeski big air qualifiers

Adjacent to the women rocketing their way out of the superpipe, Summit’s Jay Riccomini, who uses he/him pronouns, turned his skis down the big air jump as part of the women’s qualifiers. 

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Riccomini gunned down the slope and then rotated in the air to land a left-side 900 while grabbing the back of his skis.

The landing was not perfect, so Riccomini got docked a few points, earning a score of 66.50 on his first run.

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With friends and family waiting below, Riccomini looked to improve his score on his final run of qualifiers.

Riccomini tried to clean up the left-side 900, but fell on the landing due to a lack of speed coming off the jump. The failed attempt meant that Riccomini would have to wait to see if his score would hold in the top eight.

Riccomini waited through several skiers, but soon discovered that Great Britain’s Kirsty Muir had bumped him from the bubble spot, placing 10th.

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“Today I wanted to go have a good time and have some fun skiing because that is when I do my best,” Riccomini said. “My first run didn’t quite score how I wanted it to, so I tried to clean it up on my second run. I wanted to take some speed off it because I felt like I was going super fast on my first run, but I just took too much off and kind of just washed out. I still had a great time out there, and it was great.”

Park City, Utah’s Rell Harwood secured her spot in the eight-women final with her first-run score of 87.75 for the sixth qualifying spot. Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud earned the top-run score in qualifiers with a score of 93. Muir took the second spot while Frenchwoman Tess Ledeux took the third spot. 

Women’s snowboard halfpipe qualifiers 

The women’s halfpipe qualifiers spearheaded the competition on Thursday, with 22 athletes being pinned against each other in a one-heat format. 

Among the 22 athletes was 2022 Olympic Team USA team members Maddie Mastro and Zoe Kalapos.

Mastro entered the competition after her first podium finish of the season at last week’s world cup halfpipe competition in China.

Mastro, a native of Mammoth, California, placed third for the first time after a major injury that ended her season in Calgary last year.

Mastro sailed into the pipe for her first run and put a clean attempt together, which was highlighted by a backside 540 and a cab cork 720. The run earned Mastro a score of 89.75, which was more than enough for her to secure a spot in Saturday’s final.

Residing in Vail, Kalapos returned to the superpipe after taking some time off from competition last season. On her first run of the day, Kalapos fell midway through her run. Kalapos scored 30.25, which set her up to rely on her second run to secure a potential spot in the final.

Sitting in second after the first round of runs, Mastro cruised on her second run and finished in the third qualifying spot.

Kalapos put a better-executed run together on her final go, but it was not enough to advance to the final. Kalapos earned a score of 66 to place 11th.

Joining Mastro in the final, Palos Verdes, California’s Bea Kim secured the sixth qualifying spot. Korea’s Gaon Choi recorded the highest score in qualifiers with a score of 96.

Silverthorne’s Gabriella Holden, who competes for Great Britain, also competed in the women’s halfpipe competition. Holden, 17, earned a top run score of 35.25 to place 20th.

Men’s snowboard halfpipe qualifiers

The slate of competition in the afternoon featured more talent from Summit County with the vast majority of the athletes competing in the men’s snowboard halfpipe qualifiers.

Much like yesterday’s men’s snowboard big air qualifiers, the competition was heavy with talented athletes who have had success at both the World Cup and Olympic level.

The first 18-man heat featured two Summit County-based snowboarders including Summit’s Chase Blackwell and Copper athlete Siddhartha Ullah. Blackwell and Ullah both looked to finish within the top five in the first heat among 2022 Olympic Winter Games gold medalist Ayumu Hirano of Japan and silver medalist Scotty James of Australia.

Coming off a gold medal at Secret Garden in China close to a week ago, James continued to display why the halfpipe is his second home on his first run. 

James did a massive switch backside 1260, which earned a score of 95.50. Hirano tried to turn up the heat on his first run of the competition, but he was not rewarded by the judges. Hirano scored 86.25 on his first run of the day. 

Knowing that it would be tough to advance out of heat one, Blackwell attempted to go big on his first run to try to rise to the level of James and Hirano.

Blackwell executed on his first few hits of the superpipe wall, but he fell on his final hit, forcing him to rely on his final run to advance to finals. 

Ullah, 17, played things a little safer on his first run, stringing together a cab 720 and a couple 540s to score 45.

With his back against the wall, Blackwell stomped a mctwist-rewind and a cab-double 1080, but washed out in the flat bottom on his final hit off the wall. Blackwell concluded the competition with a top-run score of 31.75 for 17th place.

Ullah tried to improve upon his first run, but he fell at the middle of the pipe. Ullah placed 15th with a top-run score of 45.

James and Hirano easily advanced to the final. James placed first, and Hirano placed second. Hailey, Idaho’s Chase Josey was the only American athlete to advance to the final out of heat one, placing fourth (80).

The second heat of 20 athletes featured Telluride product and Summit resident Lucas Foster. The 2022 Winter Olympian began the Copper competition with an alley-oop mctwist but fell later into his run, resulting in a throw-away score.

Following Foster was Jason Wolle of Leadville who executed a clean run and scored a 73. 

With riders like Australia’s Valentino Guseli and Japan’s Yuto Totsuka ratcheting up the scores, Foster and Wolle both needed a marked improvement on their scores if they wanted to advance to finals.

Foster made the growing crowd at the base of the superpipe go wild as he stomped a double Mctwist before finishing out the rest of his run. Foster’s run may have impressed the crowd, but the judges were more tough on the run, giving him a score of 73.25, which was not enough to break into the top five.

Wolle put together a strong second run, which brought him into fifth place with a score of 82.25. To the excitement of Wolle, the score held through the rest of the competition.

“This contest is near and dear to my heart,” Wolle, 24, said. “I have been doing Copper Grand Prix pretty much since I was 15 or 16 years old. I have never made a final here, so this is huge for me. For me to land both my runs has been such a big confidence booster for the rest of my season going forward. I am really excited to come back on Saturday and hopefully do it all over again.”

Heat 2 was led by Guseli and Totsuka with identical scores of 95.25.

Men’s freeski big air qualifiers 

The men’s freeski halfpipe qualifiers was highlighted by a trio of American skiers who all qualified in the top four spots of their respective heats.

Connecticut’s Mac Forehand recorded the highest finish among his American teammates, posting a score of 92  in Heat 1 to place second. Forehand was followed by Park City, Utah’s Alex Hall in third place who displayed his Olympic experience and scored 90.50.

Heat 1 was led by Norway’s Birk Ruud, who scored 95 while in pursuit of his second-consecutive Visa Big Air victory at Copper. 

In Heat 2, Troy Podmilsak placed third overall with a top-run score of 90.50 to successfully advance to Saturday’s final. Italy’s Miro Tabanelli earned the top spot, scoring 94.75 to narrowly trail Ruud’s score from Heat 1.

Competition will continue on Friday, Dec. 15, with finals in snowboard big air and freeski halfpipe. For a full detailed list of events, visit USSkiAndSnowboard.org.