As a slopestyle and big air skier, Mac Forehand has won five X Games medals and two World Cup Crystal Globes. But in an alternate timeline, he might have been a mogul skier instead.
Actually, Forehand’s parents originally wanted him to be a ski racer, but as a kid he found it too boring. He was more interested in following the path of his older sister, Savannah, who at the time was participating in a weekend moguls program at Stratton Mountain in Vermont.
So Forehand went into mogul skiing and grew to love it — especially doing tricks. This made it no surprise that he found his way to freeskiing, a trick-focused sport that originally emerged as an offshoot of traditional freestyle disciplines such as moguls.
At first, Forehand’s parents were dead set against letting him switch disciplines, wanting him to stick to moguls and its highly regimented training program. Still, they let Forehand, who was about 9 years old at the time, spend the day with Stratton’s park team once or twice a year. By the time he turned 12, slopestyle skiing had become an Olympic event, dramatically altering his parents’ perception of the sport. Forehand officially made the switch.
With his track record, it’s clear that everyone made the right call. In his first full season competing internationally on the World Cup circuit, a 17-year-old Forehand captured the 2018-19 Crystal Globe as the slopestyle season champion.
“I had no goals,” Forehand said about that season. “I had no expectations. I wanted to just go out there and ski, and I skied really well, and I won, but it didn’t hit as hard [as his second World Cup title], because it wasn’t really a goal of mine.”
Despite the breakout season, Forehand’s momentum was stalled by a torn ACL and then the COVID pandemic. In 2022, though, he achieved two major milestones. First, he made his long-awaited X Games debut, placing 2nd in big air and 4th and slopestyle. He also qualified for his first U.S. Olympic team, joining a stacked freeski slopestyle and big air roster that also included Alex Hall, Nick Goepper and Colby Stevenson, all of whom earned medals in Beijing.
Although Forehand’s Olympic results (11th in big air, 20th in slopestyle) weren’t what he hoped for, he said that they fueled him in the seasons ahead. He knew he could ski better than he showed in Beijing.
The year after the Beijing Olympics, Forehand won big air gold at X Games after landing a 2160 — a trick he had never even tried to land before — and earning a perfect score. A year later, he accomplished his goal of winning the slopestyle Crystal Globe for a second time.
“The second time around [winning the Globe], I was super, super proud of myself,” Forehand said, “I wanted it so bad, and it showed out that way.”
As a new season approaches, Forehand has been training in places like Australia and New Zealand, a far cry from his roots in New England.
Although Forehand was a weekly presence at Stratton Mountain in Vermont, he grew up in Connecticut. For as long as he can remember, the family had a weekly routine: They would go to school during the week, drive up to Vermont on Friday evening, spend the weekend skiing on the mountain, then return home on Sundays.
Years later, Forehand and his family remain connected to those New England roots. His mother, Ann Marie, has been riding in the Pan Mass Challenge, an annual bike-a-thon fundraiser held in Massachusetts, for nearly two decades. A few years ago, she finally convinced Forehand, who had started road biking during his ACL recovery, to participate alongside her.
The tradition started in 2006 when Forehand’s parents first rode the PMC as part of “TeamBrent,” a team that had formed in support of a child from their hometown who was battling neuroblastoma. Forehand, who has fond memories of serving as an “unofficial” volunteer for the event when he was young, remembers meeting Brent on multiple occasions. At the time, the odds of survival for someone with Brent’s specific diagnosis were quite low. Thanks to advancements in cancer research, though, Brent is still here today, and Forehand says that he’s now cancer-free.
Forehand rode his first PMC in 2023, then rode again in 2024. Although much of his riding was without his mom —“She was a little slower than I was, so I was way ahead of her,” he says — they were able to share the experience of crossing the finish line together.
One particular segment from Forehand’s rides has stuck with him.
“There’s probably 50 signs, maybe more, of little kids’ faces on them as you ride towards this stop,” Forehand recalled. “And it’s all the kids that you’re riding for, all the kids that have been diagnosed with leukemia when they’re younger. It’s a very emotional part of the ride, and it’s really cool to see you have a part in helping them and saving their lives.”
Since its inception 20 years ago, members of TeamBrent have collectively raised more than $7 million for cancer research.
“It’s just awesome,” Forehand said of the experience. “You get emotional thinking about it and talking about it, for sure.”
The Pan Mass Challenge has produced many memories over the years for members of the Forehand family. The upcoming Milan Cortina Olympics could produce a lot of new ones. After pandemic-era lockdowns prevented athletes from bringing their families to Beijing, Forehand is excited to share the Olympic experience with his parents and siblings.
First though, Forehand has to qualify for the Olympic team. The U.S. has a deep team of talented slopestyle and big air skiers, but only four can make the roster. One spot has already been locked up by Hall, the reigning slopestyle Olympic champion, which leaves everyone else competing for three spots.
While Forehand is considered a favorite to make the team, he’s holding off on setting any specific goals for Milan Cortina 2026 until his spot is secure. However, if and when he does make the team, he knows what went wrong in Beijing and has a plan for these Games.
“I really focused on trying to do the hardest run I possibly could do,” Forehand said of the Olympic slopestyle contest four years ago, “so when it came to the event, I just messed up both runs in qualifying.”
The goal is to be more strategic with his qualifying runs this time around, then go all out in the final.
If that strategy works out, you could very well see this 24-year-old New Englander standing on at least one podium in Northern Italy.
“I don’t want to set any expectations,” he said, “but I’d just love to bring it home.”
Throughout the winter, in a series called Hometown Hopefuls, NBC is spotlighting the stories of Olympic and Paralympic athletes from across the United States as they work towards the opportunity to represent their country at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. We’ll learn about their paths to their sports’ biggest stage, the communities that have been formative along the way, and the causes they’re committed to in their hometowns and around the world. Visit nbcsports.com/hometown-hopefuls for more stories on the road to Milan Cortina.
