FREESTYLE – SKI SLOPESTYLE: Russ Henshaw has stomped his way into the men’s Ski Slopestyle final, styling his way through qualification on Thursday morning.

The 23-year-old from Jindabyne, came out firing, scoring 84.60 on his first run – the first time he’d actually put all his tricks together on the Olympic course at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.

“I took it kind of easy in qualifying, I just put a run down that I knew I could do and thought that would score well," he said.

The only Australian in the event qualified 7th in a field of 12 skiers to progress to the final.

“It felt good. I put it to my feet and the feeling of riding into the finish and all these people here was surreal."

He’s promising to step it up for the final and possibly adding some new tricks to his routine.

“I think triple corks are going to be a big thing in the final.”

It's an impressive feat for someone who's had limited preparation for the Sochi Games, after becoming injured in a crash at the X Games in January.

As expected, all four highly-favoured American competitors made it through. Joss Christensen (USA) scored an impressive 91.00 for his first run then pulled out a 93.20 on his second, to take a firm grip on the number one position. Andreas Haatveit (NOR) scored 88.00 to rank second and Great Britain’s James Woods scored 87.20 to rank third.

The Ski Slopestyle final gets underway at 1.30pm Sochi time (8.30pm AEDT Thursday).