Red Gerard is set to compete in his third Olympics in snowboarding, eight years after becoming the youngest gold medalist in the sport’s history.
Gerard, now 24, became the second athlete across all sports to clinch a spot on the U.S. Olympic team for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games after fellow snowboarder Chloe Kim.
Olympic qualifying procedures state that the highest-ranked American man and American woman in slopestyle world rankings on May 1 clinch a spot on the Olympic team in slopestyle and big air, should they also be ranked in the top three in the world.
Gerard meets that criteria. He is ranked second in the world behind Canadian Liam Brearley.
“Going into the season, I had one goal: to finish in the top three of the WSPL (rankings) and lock up an Olympic spot,” Gerard said in a U.S. Ski and Snowboard press release. “At first I wasn’t too sure if I was going to be able to reach it, but as the season went on this goal felt more and more obtainable. It was the most I’ve ever competed in one year.”
Gerard won his first two X Games slopestyle titles in 2024 and 2025. In 2026, he can become the first man to win a second Olympic gold in slopestyle, which debuted at the Olympics in 2014.
In 2022, Gerard placed fourth in slopestyle and fifth in big air as the top American man in both events.
Up to three more U.S. men and four U.S. women can make the Olympic team in slopestyle/big air next season. There are no U.S. women currently in the top three of the world rankings.
