Norway’s Birk Ruud moves into freeski big air final as he pursues a 3rd career Olympic gold

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Birk Ruud cleared the first hurdle on Sunday in his two-tiered quest to repeat as the Olympic big air champion and win a second gold medal at the Milan Cortina Games.

The two-time Olympian from Norway finished big air qualifying in third place, easing into Tuesday's final of 12 freeskiers.

Ruud, 25, won big air in Beijing four years ago and took gold on Tuesday in slopestyle.

After landing his first jump, Rudd did a head-over-heels forward flip, just for fun.

“It was a really good qualifying. I landed my two runs and felt real good about it,” Ruud said. “I expect a tough battle (in the final). It is going to be tight and there are going to be big tricks.”

American Mac Forehand had the best score of qualifying with 183 points from his two jumps. Austrian Matej Svancer was next.

New Zealand's Luca Harrington, who won bronze in slopestyle at these Games, was fifth.

American Alex Hall, the silver medalist in slopestyle, failed to advance.

In big air qualifying, skiers must land two of three jumps. Their top two scores are added together to determine their ranking.

The Livigno big air ramp, built on a scaffolding, sends the riders soaring down a slope that’s more than 40 meters (131 feet) in height and was lit by floodlights for the nighttime event.

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

Norway's Sebastian Schjerve competes during the men's freestyle skiing big air qualifications at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Switzerland's Fabian Boesch reacts during the men's freestyle skiing big air qualifications at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Canada's Evan McEachran competes during the men's freestyle skiing big air qualifications at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Norway's Birk Ruud reacts during the men's freestyle skiing big air qualifications at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Norway's Birk Ruud competes during the men's freestyle skiing big air qualifications at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

ATLANTA (AP) — A weekend storm system sweeping across the Southeast brought tornado warnings to Mississippi and Louisiana, and then took aim at parts of Georgia and Florida, as people in the Northeast were finally getting a reprieve from weeks of bitterly cold temperatures.

Some of the fiercest weather in the South was reported near Lake Charles, Louisiana, where high winds from a thunderstorm overturned a horse trailer and a Mardi Gras float, damaged an airport jet bridge and flung the metal awning from a house into power lines. The damage was documented by National Weather Service employees who surveyed the area.

Power poles were snapped and toppled near the Louisiana towns of Jena, Cheneyville and Donaldsonville, the weather service reported.

No deaths or serious injuries were reported, but the damage reports came as the storm system continued into parts of south Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, which were under tornado watches on Sunday.

The storms led to some power outages across southern states, but nowhere near the massive number of outages caused by ice storms late last month in northern Mississippi and Nashville, Tennessee. By late Sunday afternoon, around 11,000 customers were without electricity in Texas and more than 9,000 had no service in northern Florida, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.

Meanwhile, the Northeast was beginning to thaw after a weekslong stretch of uncommonly cold weather.

Boston was running nearly 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 14 Celsius) below average for February last week, and the city was on pace for its coldest winter in more than a decade. Boston remained cold on Sunday, but this week’s forecast called for temperatures climbing into the high 30s and low 40s, which is closer to the seasonal average.

On the West Coast, much of California braced for a powerful winter storm that was expected to bring drenching thunderstorms, damaging winds and heavy snow in mountain areas. Jacob Spender, a weather service meteorologist in Sacramento, urged people to take precautions in the coming days.

“So if they are traveling, packing winter safety kits. Anything to be prepared. This is a bigger system, and a major system,” Spender said.

Rain that began Sunday in the San Francisco Bay Area was forecast to intensify throughout the day and overnight, bringing the risk of flooding. Forecasters said the Sierra Nevada, including ski resorts around Lake Tahoe, could see up to seven feet (two meters) of snow before the storm moves through late Wednesday.

To the south, Los Angeles area residents in some neighborhoods scarred by last year's devastating wildfires were under an evacuation warning through Tuesday because of the potential for mud and debris flows. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she's ordered emergency crews and city departments to prepare to respond to any problems.

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Associated Press journalists Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Julie Walker in New York City; Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed.

Ice covers a navigational beacon at the end of the South Pier along Lake Michigan, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, in St. Joseph, Mich. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

Coast Guard Seaman Leyla Siglam monitors ice breaking from the Coast Guard Cutter Hawser during an ice-clearing operation at Wallabout Bay in the East River in New York, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

Ice is in front of the Statue of Liberty as seen from the Coast Guard Cutter Hawser icebreaker tug boat in Upper New York Harbor in New York, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)