Olympics 2018 slopestyle, giant slalom live results & highlights

We’ll be following along with the men’s freestyle skiing slopestyle competition as well as the Alpine skiing giant slalom competition on Saturday.

Freestyle skiing slopestyle qualifying

First runs

Two United States entrants were within the first few competitors, and they were both first-time Olympians in McRae Willaims and Alex Hall. Williams went first, and he put down a score of 81.60. Hall struggled on his run, posting a 69.80.

James Woods of Great Britain is that country’s best hope for a gold, and he very quickly moved into first place with a run that scored 90.20.

Nick Goepper of the United States is one of the big names, and he had a strong run starting from the 11th position. He was pleased with his run, getting a score of 92.80 to unseat Woods for the top spot.

Goepper was unseated when the 13th man, Andri Ragettli of Switzerland, put down a score of 95.00. Gus Kenworthy will be No. 21 in the starting order.

Kenworthy put down one of the most creative runs, favoring side hits and unique grabs rather than spins. It earned him an 88.60, placing him into fourth, just behind Woods. Kenworthy was pushed down to fifth when Elias Ambuehl of Switzerland scored an 89.60.

Goepper finished the first runs in second behind Ragettli and ahead of Woods, with Kenworthy in fifth behind Ambuehl.

Second runs

The second qualifying runs began with Williams and, unfortunately, he suffered a fall and had a score of 26.40, meaning he’ll be relying on the first run to remain in the top 12 going to the final. Woods didn’t improve in his second run, suffering a similar issue to Williams.

In his first run, Felis Stridsberg-Usterud of Norway had a fall, but in his second, he put himself in eighth place with an 84.20. Hall, an American, improved his score to a 77.80 but likely won’t make the final.

Goepper didn’t improve on his first run, but still was excellent with an 85.00 run to go with the 92.80 he put down first. Goepper was pushed to third right after that though, when Norway’s Oystein Braaten improved on his 83.20 first run with a massive 93.80.

Hall dropped out of finals contention when Evan Mceachran of Canada posted an 87.80, pushing Hall down to 13th. Williams got pushed out to 13th right after that when Oscar Wester of Sweden posted a 95.40 in his second run — much higher than the 40.60 he posted in his first run — to take first place.

Alpine skiing giant slalom first runs

Marcel Hirscher of Austria is one of hte bigger names, and he took first place early on when he was the fifth man on the course, with a time of 1:08.27. Ted Ligety of the United States will be the ninth man on.

Ligety’s run was, unfortunately, not great. He finished 2.44 seconds slower than Hirscher, which put him in sixth place, and he fell to seventh not long after. Scoring is a combined time from both runs, so he’ll have to be brilliant in his second run to podium.

Ryan Cochran-Siegle of the United States posted a 1:10.75, which was 2.48 seconds slower than the lead, placing him at 21st overall, just behind Ligety, who had dropped by that point (36 runs).

Before the events

Two major skiing events will have medals awarded on Saturday evening at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The men’s freestyle skiing slopestyle competition and men’s Alpine skiing giant slalom will both begin at 8 p.m. ET.

Both will be broadcast on NBC in primetime, with live streaming available via NBC Olympics and FuboTV. The qualifying slopestyle runs and first giant slalom runs begin at 8, with the finals projected to begin closer to 10:15 p.m.

Gus Kenworthy and Nick Goepper are the men to watch for the United States in the slopestyle. The country swept the podium in the event four years ago, though it’s without Sochi gold medalist Joss Christensen, who is unable to compete due to ACL surgery. Still, the United States is among the favorites.

In the giant slalom, Ted Ligety is the American to watch. He became the first gold medalist from the United States in the competition four years ago, and he’s a three-time world champion in the event. He’ll try and defend his medal from Sochi, though it’s a tough field overall.

Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen and Austria’s Marcel Hirscher are two of the bigger international names to watch on Saturday evening.

Below is all you need to know to watch the events, and this article will be updated with results from qualifying, first runs, and finals for both events.

How to watch the Winter Olympics on Saturday

Events: Men’s freeski slopestyle, men’s Alpine skiing giant slalom

Time: 8 p.m. ET

TV: NBC

Online Streaming: Slopestyle qualifying (8 p.m.) | Giant slalom first runs (8:15 p.m.) | Slopestyle final (11:15 p.m.) | Giant slalom final runs (11:45 p.m.)