Ayumu Hirano and Scotty James make it through an epic night of qualifying on the Olympic halfpipe

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Given the injuries he’s overcome in the past month, there’s no blaming defending Olympic champion Ayumu Hirano for just being happy to be here.

The halfpipe riders trying to take his title at the Milan Cortina Games made it clear Wednesday night they don’t share that feeling.

On a night Hirano said he was at “50 percent” at best, some four weeks after breaking his nose and suffering leg injuries at a contest in Switzerland, the Japanese rider gave himself a chance to defend his title, finishing seventh in qualifying.

But this was no normal qualifier.

“All the boys are going for blood,” said New Zealand’s Campbell Melville Ives, who opened his evening by landing a triple cork, which was Hirano’s winning trick in the Olympic final four years ago. “It’s everyone throwing down because it’s the Olympics. You definitely don’t want to play it safe.”

Nobody did. Especially not Scotty James, the Aussie rider who has won everything there is to win except an Olympic gold medal.

He watched the first seven riders land run after run filled with tricks that would have put them on the medal stand four years ago — maybe four months ago.

James knows there’s an advantage in going last in Friday night’s final, which will give him a chance in the three-run final to see what everyone else has done — and landed — before he drops in. That meant trying to finish first in this contest, which he did by scoring a 94 in his first run.

“Doing the switchback 14 in qualifying is not something I would normally do,” James said of his toughest trick, one he linked with another 1,400-degree spin in the other direction — a historic combination — to win the X Games last month.

But the occasion — on a night where history’s best snowboarder, Shaun White, was watching at the bottom — called for it.

On his second run, James joined Melville Ives and four other riders on the list of those who tried triple corks. He landed that one but later pulled up after a trick later down the pipe didn’t go quite right. 

To put it into context, it took about a decade for these riders to perfect the triple cork, which is three head-over-heels flips, usually combined with a full spin. Hirano’s ability to land it at the last Olympics was the difference between first and second — between himself and James, who concentrates more on complex spins than flipping, and now, does both.

There were no obvious signs of injury as Hirano walked through the interview area after the qualifier on what many riders said was a perfect halfpipe. Asked if he could win Friday, given what he’s been through, Hirano was blunt: “I’m not thinking too much about winning. I just want to do my best and the results will come from that.”

Melville Ives, who finished second to James at the Switzerland meet where Hirano got hurt, said the price of admission to the podium Friday night would start with flying 16 feet over the edge of the pipe on most of the jumps (higher on the less twisted ones).

“It’s going to take multiple triple corks and spinning at least five directions,” he said, suggesting all five jumps in a run will have to be completely different. 

If this contest was any indication, more than one of the 12 finalists will make that happen. 

“I think it’s going to be a hell of a battle,” James said.

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics