Bobby Brown is going to Sochi. Alex Schlopy moved closer to joining him Friday, while the reigning world champion must wait and hope.
Schlopy, the 2011 World Champion, won with a first-run score of 92.20 in the fourth of five Olympic selection events in ski slopestyle at Park City, Utah, on Friday.
Brown, the 2010 Winter X Games champion, was second with 91.80. That was enough for Brown to join Nick Goepper on the U.S. Olympic Team with a final Olympic selection event coming Saturday.
Gus Kenworthy was third. Kenworthy and Schlopy are the only skiers who could clinch the last possible automatic spot on the U.S. Olympic Team in the final selection event. They need a top-three result overall.
Schlopy is the son of two-time U.S. Olympic Alpine skier Holly Flanders and former Buffalo Bills kicker Todd Schlopy. He’s also the cousin of three-time U.S. Olympic Alpine skier Erik Schlopy, who is married to four-time U.S. Olympic swimming medalist Summer Sanders.
Tom Wallisch, the 2013 World Champion, finished ninth. That is notable because it eliminated any chance of Wallisch automatically qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Team. He could still be named as a discretionary selection.
Here are the Olympic selection standings through four of five events:
Men’s Ski Slopestyle – Three automatic Olympic spots
1. Nick Goepper — 200 (clinched Olympic berth)
2. Bobby Brown — 180 (clinched Olympic berth)
3. Alex Schlopy -- 150
4. Gus Kenworthy -- 110