Skiers' first impressions of the pipe are lukewarm.
“But it’s the Olympics, so we’ll make it work.
People are going to send it regardless.”
“There’s a lot of vert and little room for error,” he added.
“It’s the Olympics,” he explained.
“I wasn’t going to miss this for anything.”
Few competitors can match his huge amplitude and both-side double cork 12s, not to mention his switch double.
Watch for Torin’s alley-oop double flatspin and down-the-pipe double flatspin.
Kevin Rolland (FRA)
Kevin won four back-to-back X Games golds in Aspen and Tignes in 2010-11.
Mike Riddle (CAN)
Perennial Canadian contender Mike Riddle is no stranger to the competition circuit.
Watch for clean grabs, flawless execution, and a switch-to-switch double in the lower pipe.
The question is whether he’ll be able to land a run with both.
He’ll doubtless be scarfing down a good-luck sushi dinner in Sochi tonight in hopes that he will.
Dorey’s Canadian teammate Noah Bowman has possibly the cleanest switch-skiing game in the pipe right now.
His second-place finish in the 2012 X Games pipe definitely turned some heads.
Watch for a run linking flawless forward and switch hits and a switch double.
Her left and rightside 900s are the current standard to beat in women’s competition.
But she’ll need leftside spins to get there.
She’s hoping that her long years of experience will pay off against the young guns this week.
Watch for big amplitude and some clean switch skiing from Onozuka.
