Beijing Round-up Day 4: Muir makes Big Air Finals

Day 4 of the Games saw Kirsty Muir deliver a breathtaking Big Air performance, while Katie Summerhayes and James Woods missed out on Finals qualification, and Alex Tilley took on the giant slalom

MUIR’s Big Air mastery

Making her Olympic debut, Kirsty Muir showed no sign of nervousness as she put down a sensational first run in Big Air qualifying, with a super clean Double 1260, Safety Grab, sealing her place in tomorrow’s Finals. Her score of 89.25 put her in second position after the first run and was the fourth highest of the entire qualification round, with her final score of 157.50 securing seventh place and a place in the Final.

Muir, who revealed afterwards that she had suffered a few crashes in training, was joined in qualifying by Katie Summerhayes who agonisingly missed out on a place in the final, finishing 13th with the top 12 progressing.

In the men’s Big Air competition, James Woods bowed out in the qualification round after failing to stick the landing on his first two jumps in the competition. He, along with Muir and Summerhayes, will return in the Slopestyle which get underway on 13 (Women’s) and 14 (Men’s) February.

Freeskier, Katie Summerhayes, at Big Air qualification at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on the 7th February 2022 at the Big Air Shougang in Beijing, China. Photo by Sam Mellish / Team GB.

Tilley takes 22nd in Giant Slalom

After her Olympic ambitions were nearly thwarted by a serious injury in November, Alex Tilley returned for her second shot at the Olympic Winter Games, taking 22nd place in the women’s Giant Slalom competition. The result builds on her experience at the 2018 Games where she recorded a DNF in GS, and her time of 2:00.82 left her less than a second outside of the top-20.

Speaking to the BBC after her second run, Tilley explained that the competition had come “just too early” for her to show the true level of her ability in these Games.

Alpine Skier, Alex Tilley in the Giant Slalom in Yanqing, China at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. Photo by Harald Steiner / GEPA pictures.

Header Image: Freeskier, Kirsty Muir, at Big Air qualification at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on the 7th February 2022 at the Big Air Shougang in Beijing, China. Photo by Sam Mellish / Team GB.