Ben Barclay qualifies for heavy freeski slopestyle finals at his Olympic debut

Ben Barclay (Auckland, 20) has qualified through to tomorrow’s heavy freeski slopestyle finals in seventh place, lacing together two fantastic runs in the qualifications today.

“It feels amazing, I can’t really believe it. It’s something I was aiming for but not necessarily something I thought would happen, so I am just really stoked.”

This feat is made even more impressive by the incredibly high quality of the field here in Beijing

Heading into the finals Barclay alluded to having a little more in the tank that we didn’t see today and plans to up the technicality of his run in a couple of areas.

The results today were bittersweet though, with team-mate Finn Bilous (22) missing out on finals.

The Wānaka athlete gave it everything he had today, but a couple of bobbles on run one and coming unstuck on run two resulted in a 15th place finish for the two-time Olympian.

Tune in tomorrow on Sky Sport at 2.30pm NZT to watch Barclay take on the world’s best in the finals.

Ben Barclay qualifies for heavy freeski slopestyle finals at his Olympic debut

3 years ago
  Ben Barclay