WATCH: United States freestyle skier Mac Forehand got ROBBED of a gold medal in the Men’s Big Air final because of something called ‘nose butter’
United States freestyle skier Mac Forehand walked into the Men’s Big Air final and, depending on who you ask, walked out with a silver medal that should’ve been gold.
Much like the rest of America, Big Air judging is not exactly my area of expertise. I watch it the same way most of the world does during the Olympics. If the skier lands upright and doesn’t have to be air lifted off the track, I’m thinking the run should be judge in the high-90s.
That’s the beauty of the Olympic Games. We all become temporary experts in sports we ignore for three and a half years. So no, I’m not going to sit here and pretend I can break down trick difficulty down to a tenth of a point.
That said, watching it live, it sure felt like Mac Forehand got hosed.
Heading into his final jump, Mac needed a 97.25 to take the lead. Nobody had cracked that number all competition. He goes up, stomps a trick the announcer says has literally never been done before in competition, and drops a 98.25.
First time he’s ever attempted it. Under Olympic pressure. For gold. That’s movie stuff. You could hear it in the broadcast. The energy shifted. It felt like that was it.
The Americans had it.
American Mac Forehand’s epic run in the Men’s Big Air Final
Then Norway’s Tormod Frostad drops in needing a 96.25. From the couch, his trick looked… fine. No doubt it was clean but not “rip the gold medal out of Mac’s hands” fine.
Lower degree of rotation. Nothing that screamed historic. But before he even left the ramp, he did something called a “nose butter,” which, for the uninitiated, is when the skier leans forward, presses the tips of the skis into the snow, and initiates rotation before takeoff. It’s stylish. It’s technical. It’s apparently worth something.
How much is it worth? Great question. Nobody actually knows, but apparently that was what lifted him to gold over our guy Mac Forehand.
Call me crazy but this wasn’t better than Mac Forehand??
That’s the problem with judged sports. There’s no clear formula. There’s no published conversion chart that says “+1.3 points for elite nose butter execution.”
It’s all preference. Frostad had been working that nose butter into his runs all night in a way nobody else was, and when he landed his final jump, the judges gave him enough to edge past Mac for gold.
You could hear the hesitation in the commentators’ voices. It didn’t sound like they were convinced. Frostad’s earlier jumps had scored 95.25 and 97.00. His final attempt didn’t look materially better than those to the average viewer.
But the nose butter…? Judges love a good butter and that little pre-launch flourish was apparently the separator.
American fans weren’t thrilled. Social media lit up with the usual “robbed” discourse. From a distance, it felt like Mac’s trick was bigger, cleaner, more groundbreaking. But Big Air scoring isn’t just about spin count or amplitude. It’s about style, originality, flow, and whatever invisible math the judging panel values most in that moment.
Mac Forehand, for his part, handled it like a pro. He took the silver with grace, which honestly feels un-American in the year 2026. We’re conditioned to expect someone to flip a table and demand a recount.
Instead, he smiled, answered questions, and moved on. A better man than most sports personalities who scream about bias from behind a microphone.
Was it a robbery? Depends on how much you value nose butter.
From a layman’s perspective, it sure looked like Mac Forehand did enough to win gold. From a judging standpoint, the nose butter was the secret sauce and in Big Air, apparently, butter wins championships.
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As an avid snowboarder and follower of such competitions, I’ve been saying this for years the biggest issue for these types of sports is there is no concrete point system. I don’t know how it’ll be possible but looking at something with “Meh, that’s 98.5” is not creditable.