Maggie Voisin missed out on the podium at X Games Aspen over the weekend but was the top American women’s skier at the elite winter sports competition.
The 18-year-old Whitefish Olympian placed fifth in the women’s ski slopestyle on Jan. 29, a day after finishing seventh in the big air competition.
Voisin’s fourth X Games appearance provided a nice tuneup before this week’s U.S. Freeskiing Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain. The event in California officially kicks off the Olympic chase and is the first of five selection events for the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea. It’s the only Olympic qualifying event this winter as competitors begin vying for points and positioning for Team USA selections a year from now. Slopestyle qualifying is Feb. 1 and the finals are Feb. 4. Competition will be televised on NBC.
Voisin, who was named to Team USA for the 2014 Winter Olympics, remains one of America’s best freestyle skiers and reminded everyone at last weekend’s X Games, which was televised on ABC and ESPN.
In the slopestyle event, Voisin’s best score out of two runs was 79, one point shy of fourth-place Giulia Tanno of Switzerland. Kelly Sildaru, the 14-year-old sensation from Estonia, successfully defended her title with a top score of 92.33.
In Saturday’s inaugural women’s ski big air competition, Voisin tallied a cumulative score of 58, landing her seventh out of eight competitors but tops among Americans once again. Lisa Zimmerman of Germany won with a score of 85. Sildaru was second with 84 and Tanno was third with 82. Devin Logan, Voisin’s close friend and teammate on the U.S. Freestyle Team, placed eighth.
Voisin will take a trip to Norway next month for X Games Oslo. The international competition, similar to the Aspen event, will feature many of the top winter sports athletes at the venue of the 1994 Winter Olympics, March 8-11. Voisin will compete once again in big air and slopestyle and the event will be televised on ESPN.