Chris Corning reacts after his men's big air snowboarding run at the 2019 Air + Style Beijing / FIS Snowboard World Cup on Dec. 14, 2019 in Beijing.
Chris Corning was just one spot shy of a medal when big air snowboarding made its debut at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, but he hasn’t missed a podium yet this season in world cup action.
The 20-year-old from Silverthorne, Colorado, finished third in Saturday’s big air final in Beijing in the same venue where Olympic competition will take place in 2022. He’s now three-for-three in competition so far this season after winning the opener in Cardrona, New Zealand, and taking third in Modena, Italy.
Saturday’s competition was part of Shaun White’s Air + Style global event series.
Corning’s second run scored the highest of anyone in the field all day, coming in at 97.75. The only ones who came close to that were Canada’s Max Parrot, the reigning Olympic silver medalist in slopestyle, and Sweden’s Sven Thorgren, who each scored 93.25 on their best runs. Both had better second runs than Corning, however, with Parrot winning with a combined score of 186.00 and Thorgren coming in second with a score of 185.00. Corning, who was in second place after qualifying, had a total of 181.25 with his second-best score on his third and final run coming in at 83.50.
The only other American in the final was Sean Fitzsimons, who finished seventh.
Corning won the world cup crystal globe in big air in 2018, and he’s on his way to a second title with 2,200 points to lead the pack. Canada’s Nicolas Laframboise is second with 1,500 points.
Corning won the 2019 world title in slopestyle but was unable to show his mettle in big air when that contest was canceled due to weather.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
