LAAX, Switzerland (AP) — Shaun White all but wrapped up a space in his fifth Olympics on Thursday when he qualified for the finals of a contest in Switzerland and his nearest American pursuer did not walk on.
White performed fifth in the qualifying round, while High-tail Blackwell did not maintain it to Saturday’s 12-man final.
It means White, who came into the tournament as the fourth-ranked American in the World Snowboard Aspects Checklist, cannot descend extra down in that ranking, while Blackwell, who was fifth, cannot walk up. The U.S. has four spots on the males’s halfpipe crew and is anticipated to use those rankings to maintain out the final three spots.
Taylor Gold has already secured a space with a podium quit at a qualifying tournament in Colorado final month. High-tail Josey and Lucas Foster are additionally in line to affect spots.
White can restful use Saturday’s final to manufacture self belief. It’s a final that can feature the discontinue three finishers from the final Olympics — White, Japan’s Ayumu Hirano and Australia’s Scotty James.
White is in pursuit of his fourth Olympic gold medal. Then but once more, his lead-as a lot as the Beijing Video games has been rough. He was diagnosed with COVID-19, the lingering outcomes of which forced him to pull out of final week’s qualifier in Gigantic Mountain, California. Earlier, a broken binding hampered his toddle on the Dew Tour in Colorado.
He made a final-minute choice to commute to this week’s World Cup tournament in Switzerland, which is the final contest sooner than coaches design shut the U.S. crew. The crew is anticipated to be chosen subsequent week and finalized no later than Jan. 21.
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