Aspen’s Alex Ferreira and the rest of the men were forced to wait on their 2026 Winter Olympic debut while Winter Park’s Svea Irving led the U.S. women as halfpipe skiing got underway with qualifying on Thursday in Livigno.

The men’s qualifier had been scheduled for the morning session, but the contest was postponed due to a strong winter storm that hit northern Italy early Thursday. This means Friday will now be a long day for the men, with qualifiers beginning at 2:30 a.m. here in Colorado.

The finals, which were originally scheduled for Friday, will stay with an 11:30 a.m. start here in Colorado. Both will be televised live on Peacock.

Ferreira, 31, is competing in what he says will be his final Olympics and is among the gold medal-frontrunners this week in Italy. Wearing bib No. 2, he’s set to be the fourth to drop in during the 25-skier qualifier, which is a two-run format, best score counts.

The women’s halfpipe skiing qualifier went ahead as planned later Thursday after the storm cleared out. Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin led the way, scoring 91.5 to edge out China’s Fanghui Li (90) for the honor of dropping in last at finals.

“I feel like qualifiers sometimes is more nerve-wracking,” the American-born Atkin said via AP. “I’m really happy I was able to kind of manage that nervousness and put down a clean run. It’s honestly a really big relief.”

Qualifying third was Canada’s Cassie Sharpe (88.25), the 2018 Olympic gold medalist and X Games star. However, she crashed hard on her second run and had to be taken away on a stretcher. It wasn’t immediately known whether she will be able to compete in the final.

Australia’s Indra Brown, the 16-year-old phenom looking to upend the sport’s hierarchy, qualified fourth (87.5), followed by China’s Eileen Gu (86.50), China’s Kexin Zhang (82.75) and Canada’s Amy Fraser (81.75). Gu, who is from San Francisco but competes for her mother’s homeland in competition, is the reigning Olympic champion. She overcame a fall on her first run to qualify through to finals.

“I was relieved,” Gu said via AP. “I just kind of had this moment of like, ‘Thank you.’ You know, I shouldn’t be in this position to begin with, but I’m glad that I was able to reinforce my sense of self-belief at the moment when it counted.”

Qualifying eighth and leading the Americans was Winter Park’s Svea Irving, who had runs of 77.75 and 80.75 in her Olympic debut. California’s Kate Gray, another first-time Olympian, also snuck into finals, qualifying 12^th with 74.75. Also qualifying to finals were Canada’s Rachael Karker (78.25, ninth), New Zealand’s Mischa Thomas (77.5, 10^th), and China’s Yishan Liu (76, 11^th).

The first name off the list was Estonian standout Kelly Sildaru, who was 13^th with 73.75. California’s Abby Winterberger (72.5, 15^th) and Oak Creek’s Riley Jacobs (56.5, 18^th) also came up short in qualifying.

The women’s three-run final remains scheduled for Saturday night in Livigno (11:30 a.m. start in Colorado).