Aerials, Men

Twenty-four skiers competed with 12 advancing out of qualifying to the final. The favorites were the Americans and Canadians and they would place second thru seventh in the final, but the gold medal went to Sonny Schönbächler of Switzerland. Schönbächler had come out of retirement to compete in the first Olympic aerials medal competition, and he placed only 10th in the qualifying round, which was led by the Belarussian, Aleksey Parfenkov. But Parfenkov finished last on both jumps in the final, placing last of the finalists. Schönbächler’s first final jump was a back full-full-full (bFFF), and he placed first, narrowly leading two Canadians, Lloyd Langlois and Philippe LaRoche (the current World Cup leader). In the second round, Schönbächler again placed first, this time with a back full-double full-full (bFdFF), to secure the gold medal. LaRoche placed second in the second round and moved up to the silver medal. Langlois struggled, placing only 7th in the second jump, but hung on for the bronze medal. LaRoche had won the aerials event in 1992 at Albertville when it was a demonstration event, while Langlois had placed third.