ASPEN — Utah freeskier Tom Wallisch waited until his final lap down the three-jump slopestyle course Thursday to stomp the day’s best run, clinching the top qualifying spot for Saturday’s finals.
Wallisch, a slopestyle pioneer who won X Games gold in 2012 and whose damaged knee hindered his performance in five Olympic qualifying contests last year, spun a pair of lofty switch, double-cork 1080s to earn 89.66 points on the Buttermilk Mountain course.
The biggest surprise of the day was Indiana’s Nick Geopper, who won X Games gold in 2013 and 2014 and silver in 2012, failing to advance to the finals. The top eight scores advance, and Geopper finished ninth in the qualifier and will miss his first X Games finals.
Joss Christensen, another Utah ripper who won gold in slopestyle’s Olympic debut last year, also tapped a huge switch, off-axis 1080 to qualify second. Canadian Alex Bellemare took third.
Denver’s Bobby Brown fell on his first run but stepped up under pressure with clean landings, long grabs and a flowy second run to grab the fourth qualifying position. Brown won the event in 2010 as a teenager.
The ever-grinning Swede Henrik Harlaut, Great Britain’s James Woods and Canadian Alex Beaulieu-Marchand also landed in the finals.
Telluride Olympian Gus Kenworthy fell on his second run but secured the last spot to the finals with a 77-point first run.
The revamped slopestyle course has three rail and wall features at the top and only three jumps instead of four this year, mirroring the American-dominated Sochi slopestyle course.
Spanning generations. Aspen’s Chris Devlin-Young became the oldest athlete to earn X Games gold when the 53-year-old won the monoskier finals Thursday afternoon. He won bronze in the 2008 race.
“What it does for us is it gives an opportunity for the world to see that people with disabilities can doing some pretty amazing things,” said Devlin-Young, who was competing in his fifth X Games.
Army veteran Brandon Adam, who lost his legs in Iraq in 2007, won his second X Games silver (he also was second in 2011), and Ravi Drugan of Oregon was third. Adam lives in Woodland Park and trains at Copper Mountain.
Still to come. The big event Thursday is the men’s snowboard halfpipe, which usually is on the Sunday X Games schedule but moved up this year. The elimination round starts at 6 p.m., and the finals begin at 7:45. Each rider will have two runs in the qualifier, and the top eight advance to the three-run finals.
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or
