By Lisa Richwine LIVIGNO, Italy, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Olympic medallists Alex Hall of the United States and Jesper Tjader of Sweden made it through the freeskiing slopestyle qualifying round at the Milano Cortina Winter Games on Saturday to set up a showdown in next week's final in the Italian Alps.

Canadian snowboard star Mark McMorris is still targeting the slopestyle event at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics despite a nasty crash that ruled him out of the big air competition."Mark McMorris, three-time Olympic medallist,

The freeski men's events commence at Milan Cortina 2026 with the men's slopestyle qualification on Saturday, Feb. 7. American Alex Hall, the defending Olympic champion, is favored to win gold at this Games.

Finland slopestyle skier Kuura Koivisto said he ditched the hoodie because it was making it harder for him to land his jumps.

Jessica Perlmutter, Hahna Norman, and Lily Dhawornvej will look to carry on the U.S. Olympic slopestyle legacy.

Mark McMorris will not compete in the men’s snowboard big air qualifier on Thursday after sustaining an injury in training, but he is hopeful to return for slopestyle.

Amid the quiet — “my crazy lazy time,” Gremaud called it — she thought back to something her Swiss teammate, Sarah Hoefflin, told her on the podium at the PyeongChang Games in 2018. Hoefflin was 27 and had won gold. Gremaud was 18 and had claimed silver.