At the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, Su Yiming from China secured the gold medal in the men’s snowboard slopestyle competition. This victory marked Su’s fourth career medal and his second at this year’s Games, coinciding with his 22nd birthday.
The silver medal went to Taiga Hasegawa of Japan, while the bronze was claimed by American athlete Jake Canter.
Su’s initial run, accruing 82.41 points, proved to be unbeatable by any of his competitors. Previously, Su had achieved gold in big air and silver in slopestyle at the Beijing 2022 Games. Notably, he also clinched a bronze in big air last week in the Italian Alps.
Mark McMorris from Canada finished in eighth place with a top score of 75.50 points. Despite missing out on the big air event due to a training accident that resulted in injuries including a concussion, pelvic bone bruising, and strained abdominal muscles, McMorris expressed gratitude for his lengthy career and affirmed his intention to continue competing.
In the women’s snowboard slopestyle event, Mari Fukada of Japan seized the gold medal with a top-scoring run of 87.83. New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott claimed silver with a score of 87.48, while Kokomo Murase of Japan secured the bronze with 85.80 points.
Laurie Blouin represented Canada well, finishing in fifth place with a top score of 68.60 points. Blouin, who previously won a silver in slopestyle at Pyeongchang 2018 and narrowly missed the podium in Beijing 2022, expressed satisfaction with her performance, relieved not to have finished fourth once again.
Juliette Pelchat, a 21-year-old snowboarder from Whistler, B.C., made her Olympic debut and finished in ninth place with a score of 51.76.