Against the big dogs on the snowboarding slopestyle course in PyeongChang, South Korea, 17-year-old Red Gerard more than held his own. The Silverthorne, Colo. resident put down one of the most difficult and creative runs of the qualifying heats to punch a ticket to the finals on Feb. 11.
His Colorado counterpart, Chris Corning — raised in Arvada but now calling Silverthorne home, too — just missed qualifying for the final despite a solid first run of two qualifying attempts.
Gerard finished third among the second heat, with a score of 82.55 on his first qualifying run. That heat featured slopestyle giants Max Parrot and Mark McMorris, both Canadians, who each finished less than one full point ahead of the young American.
Wearing the No. 6 bib, Gerard took some of the most unique lines and used the full width of the course to profile his versatility on the different features. He capped the run with a clean triple-cork 1440.
An excited internet user provided a “Cardi B” inspired soundtrack to Gerard’s impressive run.
You wanna know somethinnnn, @iamcardib? pic.twitter.com/i6eSx68fJM
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) February 10, 2018
Gerard’s second run earned just a 57.11, but his finals status was all but confirmed after the first run. Gerard will ride in the finals on Sunday.
Corning, looked like he might be headed to a finals berth following his first run. The 19-year-old was in seventh place through the first qualifying run with a 70.85. The top six qualifiers would advance. Unfortunately, he followed that with a 69.86, barely missing on his final jump of the day, and did not build on his first solid run. Torgeir Bergrem of Norway and Niklas Mattsson of Sweden both posted runs in the mid-70s on their second run to leapfrog into the final two qualifying spots.