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Steamboat’s Baden just short in Big Air qualifying

Steamboat Springs snowboarder Nik Baden laid down a solid run and came about as close as possible to qualifying for finals at the Grand Prix snowboard event in Copper Mountain while still missing out.

Nik Baden

The event is a qualifier for the United States team for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Baden came up just short in Friday’s Big Air qualification round, finishing with a score of 86.00. That would have easily been good enough to qualify him for finals if he’d competed in the first qualifying heat. His score would have placed him third in that group, within the five that advance.



In the second heat where he actually was, however, he was left on the outside looking in. Ryan Stassel took the last spot with a score of 88.66 and Baden was the top-scoring qualifier left out of Sunday’s finals.

He’ll be back in action next week at another Olympic qualifier, the Dew Tour competitions at Breckenridge, where he’ll compete in snowboard slopestyle, the event that’s been his main focus.



To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 970-871-4253, email jreichenberger@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @JReich9.


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