At 8:45 a.m. ET the freestyle skiing men's aerials qualifications will kick off with American eyes all over 18-year-old Mac Bohonnon, the only American in the field for this event. Fans of freestyle skiing can live stream the action by clicking this link free.
Bohonnon managed to wriggle his way onto the Olympic team by signing up "last-minute" for a World Cup event in Canada. Bohonnon earned a silver medal in that event, qualifying him for Sochi and marking him as the lone American male to medal during World Cup season.
"I booked my flight [to Quebec] about eight hours before the event started and didn't really have any expectations going into it," he said. "I was just psyched to be there."
Reaching this point has been a wild ride for the youngster, who was doubtful he'd even be able to run at the World Cup events. "At the beginning of the season I didn't even know if I would have world cup starts," he said. "I didn't have any huge expectations going into this season other than to have a good time and not think about it too much. Getting this award was a really great way to cap off the world cup season."
The opposite of the Americans in this event will be the Chinese, who are sending four competitors to Sochi for the aerials. Jia Zongyang, Qi Guangpu, Wu Chao and Liu Zhongqing are all threats to medal at the 2014 games, following in the footsteps of Han Xiaopeng, who became the first Chinese skier to bring home gold in the aerials when he competed in Turin in 2006.
Qi Guangpu is probably the favorite among the four, having won the gold at the most recent World Cup event in Lake Placid last month. He's so gifted that he made his debut on the World Cup circuit as an 18-year-old.
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