Big Air Draws Big Crowds

On Saturday I headed up to the Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre to watch the Men’s Finals of Big Air. This was Big Air’s Olympic debut and the event drew a huge crowd. I would say it was the most well-attended event that I had seen. I am curious to know if the fact that it was a Saturday drew more local spectators compared to other events. The excitement of the crowd only made the experience even more thrilling. However, I have to admit that while at the event I was slightly confused about the scoring. As it turns out, for the finals, each rider completes three runs. The worst score is dropped and best two scores are combined for a final score. Six judges score on four elements (difficultly, execution, amplitude and landing) and the highest and lowest score for each run is dropped. For me, it was an honor to witness the first-ever Big Air Olympic champions celebrate with each other at the close of the event. In the coming days it will be interesting to see how well the new event was received by the international community.