McRae Williams

Park City, Utah, USA | Active: FIS record listed as not active | Discipline: freeski slopestyle and big air, now backcountry filming | Verified: 2017 World Champion, 2016-17 FIS slopestyle Crystal Globe, 3 X Games slopestyle medals, 2018 Olympian | Current: Völkl and Backcountry.com athlete in TGR backcountry projects

Sierra Nevada Under A Hard Blue Sky

The Sierra Nevada course was bright enough to flatten the takeoffs, with Spanish spring snow breaking loose around the rail decks. McRae Williams dropped into the 2017 World Championships final with camo pants, Scott skis, and one clean slopestyle run between him and the title.

The gold came on March 19, 2017, at the end of a season that had already pushed him from strong Park City local into FIS leader. Williams had won Font Romeu in January, taken X Games Aspen silver two weeks later, and entered Sierra Nevada with the slopestyle Crystal Globe already within reach. The world-title run gave the season its final stamp: rails handled without panic, switch takeoffs kept under control, and a jump line strong enough to beat a field that included Gus Kenworthy, Henrik Harlaut, Alex Hall, James Woods, Jesper Tjäder, and Andri Ragettli.

Tignes When The Skis Arrived Late

The first major shock came four years earlier in Tignes. Williams arrived at X Games Europe 2013 with the wrong kind of problem for a skier: his skis had not arrived on time. By the end of the week, he was waiting for a gold medal instead.

His second run scored 94.33 and held against Jossi Wells and Gus Kenworthy. Local Utah coverage described it as his first X Games final and first X Games gold, with Williams still a Salt Lake Community College student and Park City native. The win mattered because ski slopestyle was one year away from its Olympic debut. Tignes was not a soft prelude; it was one of the last major X Games stages before the sport entered the Olympic broadcast machine.

Park City Before The Start List

Williams was born in 1990 and raised in Park City, Utah, one of the most important freestyle towns in the United States. He started skiing young, then moved through the local park scene where rails, jump lines, trampoline habits, and Wasatch weather shaped a generation of American freeskiers.

That environment placed him near Joss Christensen, Alex Schlopy, Tanner Hall, Tom Wallisch, and the wider Utah contest network. Park City was not only a resort address. It was a proving ground where skiers could repeat tricks, test rails, hit jumps before school or after work, then drive to Copper, Breckenridge, Mammoth, or Aspen when contests demanded a larger stage. Williams’s later style kept that local rhythm: technical, steady, and built from full-course repetition rather than one famous trick alone.

Font Romeu Started The Career Year

The 2016-17 season began to turn in Font Romeu, France. Williams won his first FIS World Cup slopestyle there in January 2017, a result that changed the way his season could be read. He was no longer only an X Games medalist from an earlier era. He was leading the current World Cup field.

Font Romeu sits in the French Pyrenees, where winter contests can bring firm takeoffs, bright light, and a park layout different from the North American courses Williams knew best. Winning there gave him points, confidence, and a result that traveled well. Two weeks later, at X Games Aspen, he carried that momentum into Buttermilk rather than letting it disappear in the gap between federation competition and invitational pressure.

Buttermilk With Two Runs Instead Of Three

At X Games Aspen 2017, Williams took silver in men’s ski slopestyle behind Øystein Bråten and ahead of Alex Beaulieu-Marchand. His first run scored 93.33, and U.S. Ski & Snowboard recorded the technical sequence in detail: switch lipslide to back swap transfer to back 270 out, switch on to front 450 onto rainbow, far right back swap to front 270 out, switch left 450 to kinkrail out, left double 1260 blunt, switch right double 1080 double Japan, and switch left triple 1440 safety.

That run explains the skier better than a medal count. The rails were not filler before the jumps. They were the opening argument. The switch triple 1440 at the end gave the run weight, but the score depended on how much work he had already done above the jump line. Williams skied like a course builder’s details mattered.

How McRae Built Runs From The Top Down

Williams’s slopestyle identity was based on linking difficulty without making the course look broken into separate parts. His technical vocabulary included switch lipslides, back swaps, 270s out, front 450s, kinkrail exits, left double 1260s, switch right double 1080s, double Japan grabs, switch left triple 1440s, safety grabs, blunt grabs, and full-run speed management.

Compared with Henrik Harlaut, Williams was less theatrical in the air. Compared with Alex Hall, he was less puzzle-driven around rails and transitions. Compared with Nick Goepper, he had a looser Park City edge rather than pure contest efficiency. His strongest skiing came from balance: enough rail difficulty to score early, enough jump weight to stay medal-relevant, and enough composure to hold a run together under limited attempts.

Silvaplana And The First U.S. Slopestyle Globe

The Crystal Globe was sealed in Silvaplana, Switzerland, in March 2017. Williams finished second at the Corvatsch World Cup final, with Gus Kenworthy third and Teal Harle winning the event. That result, combined with the Font Romeu victory, pushed Williams to the top of the season standings.

FIS later framed the 2016-17 race as extremely tight, with Williams taking the men’s slopestyle title by eight points over Andri Ragettli. The detail matters. A globe is not a single run. It is a season result built from qualifying days, travel, changing course design, weather calls, and the ability to score when the field changes every stop. For Williams, the globe arrived just before the Sierra Nevada world title, creating the densest competitive month of his career.

PyeongChang Without The Final

PyeongChang 2018 gave Williams his Olympic start, but not the result his 2017 season suggested. At Phoenix Snow Park, he finished fifteenth in men’s ski slopestyle qualification and did not reach the twelve-rider final. The event was won by Øystein Bråten, with Nick Goepper second and Alex Beaulieu-Marchand third.

The Olympic miss should not erase the context. Williams entered the cycle as a world champion and Crystal Globe winner in a U.S. squad packed with Goepper, Kenworthy, Alex Hall, and a long shadow from the 2014 American sweep. Olympic slopestyle is unforgiving when a run does not land exactly. One qualification day can flatten a season’s résumé. Williams’s record still carries the full 2017 proof, even though PyeongChang ended outside the final.

Rockstar, Scott, And The Contest-Era Kit

Williams’s contest-era image was tied to Rockstar Energy, Scott skis, camo pants, and a technical slopestyle setup built for rails as much as jumps. The ski demands were clear: enough pop for double corks and triple rotations, enough edge reliability for switch entries, and enough durability for repeated rail impact.

That equipment era belonged to the mid-2010s, when slopestyle skis had to survive both X Games rail decks and World Cup jump lines. A skier like Williams needed a platform that could lock onto metal, absorb hard landings, and still release quickly from 270s and swap transfers. The gear was part of the visual memory: Scott tips crossing in front of blue skies at Sierra Nevada, then disappearing under him as he landed another technical run.

TGR And The Backcountry Second Chapter

The current public version of Williams is no longer a FIS start-list athlete. FIS lists him as not active, and Teton Gravity Research has framed his recent chapter as a move from X Games and contest life toward powder, backcountry kickers, and off-grid skiing.

In 2023, TGR described Williams as sponsored by Völkl and Backcountry.com and filming in Colorado terrain with Colter Hinchliffe and Simon Hillis. Williams spoke about bringing park flavor into the backcountry, where takeoffs, angles, snowpack, sled access, and weather windows replace the controlled structure of a slopestyle course. That transition fits the athlete. His best contest skiing already came from reading features carefully. The backcountry gives him a rougher canvas for the same instinct.

The Footage Path From Tignes To The Huts

For skipowd.tv, McRae Williams should be watched in a specific order. Start with X Games Tignes 2013 for the underdog gold, then Aspen 2014 and Aspen 2017 for the three-medal X Games arc. Move to Font Romeu, Silvaplana, and Sierra Nevada 2017 for the FIS peak.

The final layer is different: PyeongChang 2018 for the Olympic miss, Park City 2019 for the late World Championships appearance, then TGR backcountry footage for the skier after the bib. Williams’s place in freeskiing is not built on Olympic medals. It is built on a rare 2017 sequence: World Cup win, X Games podium, Crystal Globe, World Championships gold, then a later turn toward snow, huts, and hand-built backcountry takeoffs.