There is Olympic gold in the air up there, but many of these daredevils aren't huge fans

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Ask freestyle skier Colby Stevenson if he likes big air, the most high-flying event in a sport full of them, and his answer is short and to the point.

“No,' he said. ”I have no real use for it."

Which makes him pretty much like a lot of his action-sports brethren — all of them adrenaline junkies — who will grace the 50-meter-high hill (165 feet) built on a scaffolding at the Winter Olympics in Livigno over the next two weeks.

The one key exception: Stevenson is the defending Olympic champion.

“I felt like I was going to war that morning,” Stevenson said of what goes down as the crowning athletic achievement of his career. “I was trying a trick I had never done and I was just like, ’I’m either going to land this, or go away in an ambulance.'”

The Olympics added this event to the snowboard program in 2018, then the freestyle skiing schedule four years after that. The thought was that asking a few hundred athletes to hurl themselves up to 20 meters (65 feet) in the air, then try to land after completing somewhere between three and six spins and flips, would make for great viewing in person and on TV. Which it does.

It's also dangerous, and the stakes were brought into stark focus during training Wednesday night when one of Canada's greatest snowboarders, Mark McMorris, had to be carried off the mountain on a stretcher after a nasty fall. Canadian officials said McMorris wasn't badly injured, though he pulled out of Thursday night's qualifying round with hopes of getting ready for slopestyle on Feb. 16.

McMorris' three Olympic bronze medals all came in slopestyle — which is big air's more stylistic and arguably less-dangerous cousin.

Last month in an interview with The Associated Press, McMorris was asked what the point of big air really was: “It’s an event that, you see it, and you just go ’Wow!'” he said.

Because the number of athletes at the snowpark was getting out of hand, organizers decided they would place anyone who qualified for slopestyle — which incorporates big jumps into a longer, more technical contest — into the big air event as well.

The AP's informal survey of about a dozen riders in the leadup to the Games all ended with the same conclusion: They got into the sport for slopestyle; doing big air is part of the deal.

“Honestly, I don't know why we're forced to do this,” said American 2018 slopestyle gold medalist Red Gerard, who finished 20th in qualifying and wasn't all that upset to not advance to Saturday's finals. “It's not what I enjoy doing. There's no flow to it. It's a little frustrating when you're forced to drop into the big air when I just want to be focusing on slopestyle. I enjoy the flow of slopestyle.”

Gerard is not alone. The debate surrounding big air infiltrates pretty much every corner of a sport that wrestles with the need to “go big” vs. the innate desire of these athletes to show they are more than acrobats on snow.

Eileen Gu, the freeski star who won gold in big air and silver in slopestyle at the last Olympics, said, “Yeah, slopestyle,” when asked which event she preferred. She wasn't surprised to have so much company.

“I've only competed in big air twice at a World Cup level,” Gu said. “As far as the reason I'd expect that to be the answer is that slopestyle embodies the essence of the sport. It offers the opportunity for an individual to highlight a multiplicity of skills.”

While slopestyle is art on a canvas, big air is theatre in the round, its surge underpinned by the idea that you can build a hill almost anywhere and bring the high-flying flips off the mountain and into the city. Fenway Park and the Rose Bowl have hosted big air contests. In 2018, when the event debuted at the Olympics in South Korea, organizers brought the snowboarders off the mountain, closer to the main Olympic cluster.

More notably, Beijing four years ago held big air on the site of a reclaimed steel mill. Skiers and snowboarders flew in front of a tableau of skyscrapers and an out-of-commission smokestack. It was a Chinese example of urban renewal; the property also served as the headquarters for the country's Olympic organizing committee.

There was no such plan for these games. Livigno is five hours from Milan by train and bus. Instead, workers built the massive scaffolding adjacent to the slopestyle course and the halfpipe. Skiers and snowboarders use an elevator to get to the top, snap on their gear and hold their breath.

About the only technical requirement in this event is that they spin in different directions on at least two of their three jumps. Other than that, stomp a good landing and may the most spins win.

Ollie Martin, the 17-year-old U.S. snowboarder who became the first rider to land jumps with 2,160 degrees of spin in both directions, could end up bringing one of those massive tricks to the big air final, set for Saturday.

Truth be told, he said he'd be just as happy getting oohs and aahs for what he does on the slopestyle course. He has been on podiums in both events over the past two winters. Does he like big air?

“I do,” he said. “Just less than slopestyle.”

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

China's Su Yiming practices during a snowboard big air training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

China's Yang Wenlong practices during a snowboard big air training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

FILE - United States' Colby Stevenson trains for the men's freestyle skiing big air competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

United States' Alex Hall practices during a slopestyle training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are hanging near their records Wednesday as oil prices fall and ease the pressure on households and businesses worldwide.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% below its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 183 points, or 0.4%, as of 12:56 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.

Stocks of companies with big fuel bills helped lead the way on hopes that lower oil prices will remove a big drag on their profits. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings climbed 5.7%, and United Airlines rallied 7.3%. Delta Air Lines rose 3.7% and is on track to set an all-time high.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil fell 4.1% to $95.48 after the ceasefire between the United States and Iran appeared to hold despite the U.S. military launching what it called “self-defense” strikes in southern Iran. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude fell even more, 4.2%, to $89.69 on hopes that the United States and Iran can reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf for deliveries again.

Stocks have been able to run to records despite the painful inflation and uncertainty caused by high oil prices largely because companies have reported surprisingly strong profits for the start of 2026, and the forecast is for them to continue.

Bath & Body Works rallied 11.2%, and Abercrombie & Fitch climbed 11.8% after both reported bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. That's even as U.S. consumers continue to say they're feeling discouraged about the economy and inflation.

Lululemon Athletica rose 3.6% after reaching a deal with its founder, Chip Wilson, where it will add a former chief marketing officer of ESPN and a former co-CEO of On to its board of directors.

On the losing side of Wall Street was Dick's Sporting Goods, which dropped 4.9% despite delivering a profit for the latest quarter that edged past expectations. Analysts pointed to how much profit it wrung out of each $1 in revenue, which some called a bit weak.

Oil-and-gas stocks also sank, hurt by the dropping prices for crude. Exxon Mobil fell 1.4%, and Chevron slipped 0.8%. Halliburton dropped 3% to bring its gain for the year so far back toward 40%.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after falling oil prices took pressure off inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.48% from 4.50% late Tuesday and from 4.67% roughly a week ago.

It’s a respite following recent gains for yields in bond markets worldwide, which threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments. High yields have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level since last summer, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the artificial-intelligence data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. South Korea's Kospi was one of the world's best performers and jumped 2.3% after SK Hynix, which is a big beneficiary of the artificial-intelligence boom, soared 9.3%.

A day before, Micron Technology surged to become the latest Big Tech company to be worth more than $1 trillion on AI excitement. Its stock has more than tripled already in 2026, and analysts at UBS said Tuesday it could soar even more because of how fundamentally AI has improved demand for computer memory.

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Trader Edward Curran, left, and specialist Meric Greenbaum, center, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, May 25, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A dealer walks past near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A dealer walks past near the screens showing the foreign exchange rates at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A dealer walks past near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A dealer stands near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)